The end-of-season friction that appeared between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez has been tipped to continue into 2023 by some pundits.
The Sky Sports F1 team have weighed in on the matter that overshadowed the end of Red Bull’s dominant 2022 campaign.
At the Brazilian Grand Prix, Verstappen refused to hand a position back to Perez amid the Mexican’s fight for second place in the Drivers’ Championship.
Rumours at the time suggested that Verstappen was unwilling to give the position to his team-mate due to claims that Perez deliberately crashed during qualifying in Monaco earlier in the year.
READ MORE: Should Perez be worried about Ricciardo’s Red Bull return?
At the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Red Bull played down the situation and claimed that it had moved on from the team order spat.
But David Croft, who leads Sky Sports’ F1 commentary, believes that irreversible damage has been done.
“There has to be trust issues there,” said Croft. “You need to be able to trust your team and as a driver, trust your team-mate.
“Whatever went on in Monaco, and the assumption is that there was something about Checo’s crash that wasn’t misfortune, shall we say? If it wasn’t an act of misfortune, there is a trust issue there.
“And in the back of your mind, I don’t care who you are, you’re thinking ‘will they do that again? I don’t see how it gets repaired.”
‘Perez has got to lift his game’ – Chandhok
Red Bull enjoyed a dominant 2022 season, winning both the Drivers’ and Constructors’ Championship with several rounds to spare.
Verstappen largely out-paced Perez across the campaign, which was their second in partnership at Red Bull.
Former grand prix driver Karun Chandhok asserts that Perez must raise his game if he wishes to compete against his team-mate going forward.
“I, putting my driver hat on can tell you, I still remember drivers who have blocked me on a qualifying lap in 2007,” said Chandhok.
“I think we’ll only find out the true damage done by Brazil next year at a moment where Checo is asked to help Max and I think that is going to be interesting.
“But ultimately though, Checo has got to lift his game, because he only out-qualified Max three times this year, all three on street circuits, one of them Monaco, perhaps a bit of an asterix as well.
“He’s got to lift his game if he’s going to be in a position to fight.”
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