As Formula 1 drivers hit out at the wild, celebrity-fuelled pre-race proceedings at the Miami GP, the other hot topic is that the sport is not living up to the same hype on the actual track. Many observers were not even impressed that Red Bull is – for now – allowing Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez to freely fight at the front. Arguably, the true source of F1’s ‘boredom problem’ at present is that Red Bull’s top rivals are too far behind to create a true competitive situation in the sport at the moment. The missing element in 2023 is, in large part, the struggles of Red Bull’s usual top team rivals Mercedes and Ferrari. Both of those teams are claiming they do not understand their current cars. Even Red Bull agrees with Sainz that the Verstappen and Perez-piloted 2023 car is “on another planet”. “It’s not my job to convince people to watch a sport,” he said.

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