The five drivers under the most pressure heading into F1 2023

168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez heads into his third year with Red Bull on the ꦰback of his best season yet.
Two wins and 11 podiums put Perez third in the final drivers’ championship, narrowly missing out on the runners up spot to 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Charles Leclerc at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Perez has proven to be a dependable number two, particularly in 2022, when Red Bull’s overweight RB18 seemed to suit his driving🔯 style.
Once Red Bull reduced the weight and cured the inherent understeer problem, Perez went backwards, struggling to even get within 0.5s of 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen in the mid-part of the year.
Things did get better for ওPerez at the close of the season, putting in a stellar drive to win in Singapore ahead of Leclerc.
With Ferrari and Mercedes likely closing in on Red Bull, Perez💧 can’t afford to be over three♔-tenths behind his teammate.
During his days with Sauber and Force India, he was renowned for his tyre preservation and race pace - something we haven’t really seen during his first two years with 🐈Red Bull.
Given that Perez is driving for one of the top teams, he’s always going to be under immense pressure, perhaps even more so due to the recent signing of 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Daniel Ricciardo.
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Yuki Tsunoda
It’s now or never for Yuki Tsunoda and 👍his career in F1.
With 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Pierre Gasly leaving the team, Tsunoda is now AlphaTauri’s most experienced driver, even though he’s five years younger than new teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nyck de Vries.

While ♌Tsunoda made progress in his sophomore season, he’s been one of Red Bull’s more underwhelming F1 juniors over the past decade.
His progress was masked by a poor AlphaTauri car in 2022, 🌊although an unmot𝓰ivated Pierre Gasly, who will race for Alpine in 2023, might have clouded the picture.
Tsunoda has been fortunate that Red Bull havenﷺ’t had too many ღimpressive youngsters come through the ranks in F2 or F3.
It’s time for Tsunoda to step up or his future with the team could be under threat for 2💞024.
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Zhou Guanyu
Zhou Guanyu surprised in his rookie year, performing solidly alongside 10-time grand prix winner 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Valtteri Bottas.
Unfortunately 🌳for Zhou by the time he got up to speed in F1, Alfa Romeo had slipped right down the pecking order meaning he wasn’t able to capitalise on thꩵeir early season form.
Zhou proved to be a solid pair of hands, rarely making m🐎istakes and often excelling in 🔯tricky conditions.
All in all it was a res⭕pectable first season ꦐfrom Zhou in F1, performing beyond many fans and pundits’ expectations.
To remain in F1 long ꦓterm, Zhou will nee👍d to make a further step in performance.
Whenever the car was at its best at the tail end of the🍎 year it was Bottas rather than Zhou making Q3 and picking up the odd point.
Surprising? 🃏Not at all, but if Zhou wants to remain with Alfa then he will need to continue to get bett൩er.
As time goes on, Audi will be wanting to put their own driver in the team - 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Mick Schumacher? Or a bigger name as they prepare for 2026.
168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Oscar Piastri
Rookies are always under pressure wh🦂en they 𒆙make their F1 debuts, but more so with Oscar Piastri.
There was so much drama and controversy over his arrivalꦗ into F1 as McLaren and Alpine battled it out for his services.
If two teams are wi🎐lling to go to court it must mean that you’re worth the potential cost it would take💞.

💎Piastri is incredibly talented, evidenced by his back-to-back F3 and F2 👍titles.
However, he’s up againsꦿt 🔯one of the best drivers on the grid in Lando Norris.
No✅rris’ domination of Ricciardo over the last two years was nothing short of astonishing.
Yes, Ricciardo did have his own troubles but Norris’ remarkable consistency and level of performance was up there with the likes of Verstappen, Leclerc ܫand Lewis Hamilton over the past two ⛦years.
Logan Sargeant
Logan Sargeant becomes the first American to race in F1 full-time since Scott Speed ꩲin 2006.
That alone brings its own pressure as America’s F1 audience grow𒁃s exponentially💫.
Sargeant only finished fourth in the F2 standings, a distant 117 points behind eventual champion𒉰 Felipe Drugov🍸ich.
While there is pressure, Sargeant simply needs to be an upgrade on his 🌳predecessor ꦯNicholas Latifi, who struggled immensely in his final year with Williams.


With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartb♏eat of our unbiased reporting.