He's so erratic as a top-team driver. Of the 6 or 8 top team drivers he seems to be the one easiest to break under pressure, even with Perez underperforming for half the season.
Piastri and Sainz, yeah. Leclerc and Perez (although this season the "top" driver is up for discussion) after. Max, Lando and Lewis can have their diva-/moan-moments, but don't straight up dive into the barriers.
The sprint victory didn't look super easy and self evident though. And looking at Perez's results it's also obvious the red bull probably still isn't the best car on the track again.
So I still think this just means more actual racing and a very exciting championship, that is still his to lose.
I'm not sure I agree with that assessment, but I hope you're right. The Red Bull has looked more hooked up this weekend than it has in months (at least in Max's hands) and to me the sprint victory looked fairly comfortable and assured. Part of it will have been enjoying clean air but Lando was far from the fastest car yesterday - would have been overtaken by both Ferraris would it not have been for his excellent start I think.
To me it looks like the Red Bull upgrade package finally put them back on top (or at least even) and Max will win most of the races from here on out - he is the best driver after all so you need clearly superior machinery to have a chance against him, which it looks like is no longer the case.
It looks like the upgrade put the car again into a window where Max can operate it. That window still propably is way more narrow than the McLaren's, since Checo struggles with it.
Yeah McLaren will need superior machinery to beat Max - or luck. We know that Max is prone to being impatient and making stupid moves when he is under pressure, so that could help McLaren over the next few races.