Italian media rue Red Bull's edge over Ferrari

Red Bull's dominance of the 2023 F1 season continued in Baku, with Sergio Perez taking the flag from Max Verstappen to make it four wins from four for the drinks-backed outfit.

Though Charles Leclerc had taken pole position for Sunday's race, he was powerless to resist Verstappen and Perez, who quickly breezed past the Ferrari driver.

Leclerc ultimately finished third for the Scuderia's best finish of the year so far, but there was a distinctly downbeat tone to his achievement among Italy's sports media.

"Another double for Red Bull. Perez showed that he is a street circuit specialist and reduces the gap with Verstappen to six points. The Dutchman paid the price for a pit stop at the wrong time. Even a top-class Leclerc is not enough to beat the Red Bull drivers," sighed the Gazzetta dello Sport, Italy's largest Sports newspaper, who likened the Red Bull duo to famous dominant teams of F1's past, and hailed Perez's upturn in form.

"Verstappen and Perez are dominating F1 like [Ayrton] Senna and [Alain] Prost and [Lewis] Hamilton and [Nico] Rosberg. It's been a perfect weekend for Perez, just like Jeddah, but it's still hard to imagine Verstappen's leadership position at Red Bull being up for debate. Perez is delivering this year, however, and is trying to do something about the hierarchy, right in front of Christian Horner and Helmut Marko.

"The Red Bulls made sure that Leclerc was a spectator. Afterwards, he didn't look like a driver who was happy with his first podium finish of the year. Ferrari are doing better, but they are still facing a huge task. In the coming races, important updates must be made."

The Gazzetta also noted that Adrian Newey's ability to produce a dominant car has contributed to Red Bull's dominance: "The human factor is not enough when you fight Newey, Leclerc can say. He brought magic in qualifying and fought hard in the race. If only the Ferrari would help him a little...

"Perez feels comfortable within the walls and has grown after beating Verstappen. If he manages to repeat this, he can really become a title contender. Verstappen, in turn, seemed a bit less efficient than usual last weekend."