Max Verstappen leads team-mate Sergio Perez by 53 points in the drivers' championship, with Fernando Alonso a further 18 points adrift; Verstappen has always spoken positively about Alonso; watch the Canadian GP from Friday with all sessions live on Sky Sports F1
Friday 16 June 2023 12:43, UK
Max Verstappen says he hopes Fernando Alonso can win an F1 race this year, describing the two-time world champion as an "animal".
Aston Martin have been confident about their chances at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix, with owner Lawrence Stroll hoping Alonso and son Lance Stroll can be on the podium.
Alonso last topped an F1 podium at the 2013 Spanish Grand Prix and should he win again, it would be a record for longest gap between victories.
Verstappen has always talked positively about the Spaniard, previously stating he should have more triumphs in the sport.
"I like him. He's a real racer and I think he deserves it [to win]. He never gives up and you can see he loves the sport," said Verstappen.
"Sometimes I think 'after so many years of having a car which is only capable of driving in midfield maybe you lose a bit of that love'. But he's a real racer, he's an animal. So if you ask me, one driver who I would like to see win a race this year it would be Fernando."
Alonso meanwhile is optimistic Aston Martin will be more competitive this weekend in Montreal than they were in Barcelona where 2023's surprise team had their weakest race so far with sixth and seventh place finishes.
"I think it should be a good weekend but you never know until you hit the track," Alonso said. "We also had expectations in Barcelona and we didn't perform in that race.
"Let's see. We have a couple of new parts on the car as well at this race. Depending on the weather, we will try to test them and validate them and hopefully can be a little bit more competitive than Barcelona."
Red Bull have won 17 of the last 18 races, including every Grand Prix this year, and Verstappen leads the drivers' championship by 53 points from team-mate Sergio Perez.
The Dutchman has won the last three races and would like to see his rivals get close enough to capitalise on any mistakes Red Bull make.
"It's nice sometimes to have good competition. I enjoyed 2021 but I also enjoyed the way 2022 went. Of course, at the beginning, we had some reliability issues, the car was a bit heavy but, at one point, the car was also really quite dominant to the end," said Verstappen.
"For the sport in general, and I understand of course people get a bit bored if only one team is dominating - we have seen it with Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull in the past.
"I hope that more teams can get together, so at least even if you have a little issue or you can't get the setup 100 per cent, that there is another team to win."
Asked whether he thought the same when Mercedes were dominating, Verstappen answered: "It's all about hard work. I appreciated what they were doing and it was super impressive at the time. I never really felt like you had to stop that or anything. It was all about trying to work harder and trying to catch up."
It could be a memorable weekend for Red Bull as they are looking for their 100th win in F1 since joining the grid in 2005.
Verstappen could also become the joint-fifth most successful driver in terms of wins if he stands on the top step of the podium on Sunday, drawing level with Ayrton Senna on 41 victories.
"I never think about those things - same when you change the livery of a car. I'm not superstitious. I really don't care about these things," he told Sky Sports F1.
"The same with people with the ladder, or salt or shoes on the table. I would probably do the opposite. I would walk under a ladder or pass the salt. So just keep it simple. Know what we have to work on which is making the car very fast, and we have done that so far this year.
"But of course there will be weekends where you might be caught out but it has nothing to do with a number of what you are trying to achieve."
He added: "It's something that when I grew up I never really thought about. It's a crazy number for me but with the way the car is performing at the moment, I don't want it to stop here, I want to win a lot more. It's an amazing number and it's definitely something I'm proud of."
Verstappen's team-mate Sergio Perez meanwhile is hoping for a reset in Canada after poor races in Monaco and Barcelona saw his title ambitions severely dented.
The Mexican crashed out in the first part of qualifying in Monaco and was unable to score any points and in Spain missed out on the podium after again failing to reach Q3 in qualifying.
He has slipped 53 points behind Verstappen, and Red Bull boss Christian Horner suggested in Barcelona the pressure was now off the Perez given the gap that had opened up.
But Perez rejected that claim and is now targeting blemish-free weekends for the rest of the season to reignite his title fight.
"No I don't think so," Perez said when asked if he agreed with Horner's comments.
"We always have to deliver to our maximum. We have to make sure we deliver. We have a great car, we should be having a lot of podiums, wins and so on from now until the end of the year.
"We can see the competition is getting closer and closer all the time - but we will try our best."
He added: "I basically want a restart, to go again. Monaco was all down to me, I had a really bad mistake. Then in Barcelona in the qualifying again, it was tricky with the damp conditions, we didn't manage to have a good qualy, and we paid the price on Sunday. I'm looking forward to getting back on the form we had in the early season...
"I cannot afford to have any bad weekends anymore. I think I've had two or three bad weekends in the season, so I really have to get rid of those and keep the consistency high, because I think Max has been really good and consistent throughout this period.
Friday June 16
6pm: Canadian GP Practice One (session starts at 6.30pm)
7.45pm: The F1 Show
9.45pm: Canadian GP Practice Two (session starts at 10pm)
Saturday June 17
5.15pm: Canadian GP Practice Three (session starts at 5.30pm)
8pm: Canadian GP Qualifying build-up
9pm: Canadian GP Qualifying
11pm: Ted's Qualifying Notebook
Sunday June 18
5.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday Canadian GP build-up
6:55pm: The Grandstand with Daniel Ricciardo and Will Arnett (via red button)
7pm: THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX
9pm: Chequered Flag Canadian GP reaction
10pm: Ted's Notebook
