There has never been a close contest between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez during their four seasons together at Red Bull.
However Perez’s form this year sunk to an alarming low after around half-a-dozen races. This roughly coincided with the team’s decision to extend his contract, blowing the theory that a show of faith in their driver would spur him on to better things.At this stage in the season it’s easy to overlook the fact Perez made a respectable start to the championship. He backed Verstappen up in one-two finishes for the team in three of the first four rounds. Six races in he’d finished every race in the top five and was second in the standings.
Yes, he was consistently behind his team mate to begin with, a factor most teams would query. Perez hasn’t qualified ahead of his team mate since Verstappen’s slip in qualifying at Miami last year, 31 rounds ago.
But following a particularly poor spell in the middle of last year, Perez ended the season in better shape. He carried that into this year but his season started to go off the rails at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. Perez failed to reach Q3, while Verstappen stuck the car on pole, and only recovered to eighth.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner called his weekend an “anomaly”. But his form only worsened from there, and soon it began to seem his performance in the opening races was the real anomaly.
The performance gap between the two drivers on single-lap pace widened, at least on the occasions when Perez managed to set a representative lap time in qualifying. He hasn’t always done that, crashing in consecutive races at Silverstone and the Hungaroring.
As Red Bull have pressed on with their efforts to improve the RB20, the two drivers haven’t always had the same specification hardware. This also happens at other teams, but may have been aggravated in Perez’s case by his qualifying crashes, plus his huge shunt at Monaco after tangling with Kevin Magnussen who started four places behind him in 20th.
After Perez’s third point-less weekend out of five, Horner described the situation as “unsustainable”. But after a pair of seventh-place finishes and some reflection, Red Bull again appear to be hoping that a show of faith in Perez was lead to better performances. The outcome of the constructors’ championship is riding on whether they’ve made the right call, for while Perez goes into the summer break with just under half his team mates’ tally, Verstappen has out-scored him more than four-fold over the last eight races.
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Verstappen vs Perez: Season summary
Verstappen vs Perez: Race-by-race
BAH | SAU | AUS | JAP | CHI | MIA | EMI | MON | CAN | SPA | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | ||
Verstappen | Q | ||||||||||||||
R |
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Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Verstappen was faster; Positive value: Perez was faster
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Formula 1
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- Sainz made same start error as Norris at Monza last year – but avoided a penalty
notagrumpyfan
2nd August 2024, 8:17
And those 21 laps were probably all just after a penalty race start or an early pit stop.
Roy Beedrill
2nd August 2024, 8:40
I’ve just taken a look at the Belgium GP lap chart and yes, Max got ahead of Checo at lap 21! Oh my…
notagrumpyfan
2nd August 2024, 9:51
That’s then even more impressive; if not for the 10-grid penalty in Belgium it would’ve been a clean sweep on ‘laps ahead’ as well.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 13:53
Well, yes.
BUT
Max was immediately behind Checo for a while, with apparent difficulty getting by, until RBR called him into the pits to get him out of the way.
So, without team interference, he could have clocked up more than 21 – gasp!
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:24
Patrick posted this quote, which seems to make a lot of sense:
notagrumpyfan
2nd August 2024, 11:44
What does RBR get in return?
2024 WCC? (not to be confused with a third toilet)
Mayrton
2nd August 2024, 11:53
I hope this is not true.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 14:00
Nope, sorry, I can’t see that as being anything other than a tall tail.
SteveR (@stever)
2nd August 2024, 19:37
I agree, doesn’t seem likely. Liberty gets paid no matter what the gate is, it’s up to the promoter to make money at the gate. Liberty also gets all the track advertising money.
David BR (@david-br)
2nd August 2024, 15:20
Patrick who?
David BR (@david-br)
2nd August 2024, 15:23
(If you mean Patrick who posts BTL here, where does this quote come from? Sorry if that seems obtuse, I just like to know what the source is.)
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 22:52
Patrick Bateman.
Anyway, probably less about Liberty and more about fearing showing up to Mexico City right after firing Perez.
Dane
2nd August 2024, 16:19
So should we expect Perez to be fired after the Mexican GP?
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd August 2024, 18:28
Nick T. I highly doubt the validity, though, given LM has zero say on driver matters, not to mention next season’s Mexico City GP ticket sales would be affected anyway, regardless of whether the sacking happened during or after this season.
Nick T.
4th August 2024, 0:23
I don’t think it’s likely, but it could be a factor. I doubt it’d be about Liberty, but rather: a) keeping corporate and their distributors happy and b) that they’d have a very unpleasant time showing up to Mexico City with Checo recently fired.
Broderick Harper (@banbrorace)
2nd August 2024, 8:23
He must have some kind of hold on Red Bull.
Oh of course, I forgot. MONEY. lol
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd August 2024, 9:30
Would a team as rich as red bull give up on the possibility of a 2nd competitive driver for that amount of money? I find it hard to believe that’s the reason, they have plenty of money.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:00
Massive money + keeping Max happy. It’s backfired though because Max isn’t happy and seems to be driving staff away at an equal measure to Horner and Checo.
Jere (@jerejj)
2nd August 2024, 18:29
@banbrorace Red Bull mightn’t be as free with cash as in the Mateschitz days, but sponsor money from drivers is still a secondary aspect to such a big organization.
GechiChan (@gechichan)
2nd August 2024, 8:40
RedBull should have put Carlos in this seat next year, as they’ll need all hands on deck for WCC. The way McLaren and Merc improved their cars lately, the constructors title is not a given for RBR this season and definitely are no longer the favorites for 2025 if they can’t score consistently with both cars.
An Sionnach
2nd August 2024, 9:27
Carlos Slim?
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:01
Hahaha. Well played. I Audi-bly laughed at that one.
G Beach
2nd August 2024, 12:53
I was thinking Carlos Santana
Mayrton
2nd August 2024, 11:56
Lots of people address this but RedBull don’t care about the WCC. That’s interesting for teams that produce road cars but not at all for a soda seller. What remains is that you at least would like a 2nd driver that support the nr1 as in covering pitstop strategy, holding up others etc so that would be an argument to swap Perez for someone else.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 13:58
Horner is on record as saying they do, and of course he never tells anything other than the truth, does he?
Whisper: Catering budget
Yeah, you might well be right. :)
Mayrton
3rd August 2024, 10:49
Hahaha good one. I also always read the opposite to be true in anything he says
Ben
2nd August 2024, 8:43
Reading a lot about Liberty Media having involvement in him staying. Not sure how true it is, but right now it’s the only thing which makes any sense. He’s been so poor this year and coming home 8th in Spa shouldn’t have been enough to save him.
The McLaren fan in me is happy as McLaren have a real shot at the constructors. But I’d prefer to see some in team races from Redbull. Max has it too easy this year and I expect RedBull to end the season stronger.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:03
I mean I doubt RBR would care what Liberty wants, but with the huge success of the Mexico City GP I’m sure Liberty does want Checo in the field.
AlanD
2nd August 2024, 19:32
What Red Bull wants is to sell its fizzy drinks in Mexico and in Latin America generally where it is competing against Monster. I read somewhere that the F1 team easily sells more of its merch in Mexico than anywhere else in the world which shows the value of F1 and Perez as a Red Bull adverising vehicle in Mexico and dropping Perez close to the Mexican GP would be very damaging for their brand in Latin America.
anon
2nd August 2024, 11:18
The supposed source of those claims is a bit questionable, so I wouldn’t trust it that much.
The more plausible suggestions are the ones that have come previously. The drivers within their junior team haven’t convinced them that they are a marked improvement, whilst the factions within the team cannot find a candidate from outside the team that they can all agree with.
Even if they might not necessarily want Perez to stay if this is how he performs, the lack of an alternative that everyone can agree on is helping him stay there.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 14:04
This.
I would suggest that the data they have shows DR isn’t up to the job, Lawson is deemed a risk still, even after the substitution work last year, and Tsunoda has somehow triggered Horner’s “over my dead body” button.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
2nd August 2024, 9:29
Damn, that’s a really damning graph for perez! How can it be that he can’t beat verstappen ever in race, nor qualifying? As consistent as verstappen is, that’s terrible.
I’m pretty sure it’s extremely rare to see a driver do a full sweep of quali\race head to head.
Janith
2nd August 2024, 9:48
You should just see the record Sargeant has against Albon.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:08
And people say DR and Yuki aren’t really better options…Give me a break.
The laps ahead part aspect is shocking: 691-0 essentially when you consider those lone 21 laps were the result of a penalty for Max.
@Janith – At least Logan has been on Albon’s pace ever since he was given equal equipment this season. But the worst and most inexperienced driver in the field shouldn’t be Checo’s measuring stick.
MadMax (@madmax)
2nd August 2024, 11:35
Logan leads 4-3 in qualy head to head against Perez since Monaco. Didnt know the RBR fell that far behind.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:41
Checo’ed off yet another embarrassing stat.
Jojo
2nd August 2024, 10:08
It’s not such a big deal that he was defeated in qualifying that many times in a row. Max has been incredibly consistent. For 20 of the 31 qualifying results, Max was P1 and he qualified in the top 3 for 27 of them.
I think the margin and the number of positions that Perez has been behind is the bigger issue. He tends to make mistakes in Q1 or his pace just isn’t there. It’s a shame as I’d love for him to turn things around and do well.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:08
It’s all incredibly damning.
Jojo
2nd August 2024, 12:44
It certainly doesn’t look good. If he was qualifying directly behind Max it wouldn’t be so bad. Last year Max’s average qualifying position was P3 (and that included a P15 in Jeddah due to a mechanical issue). For Perez his average was P9. It’s shaping up to be similar or worse this year.
I would have liked Yuki to go to Red Bull. Even though Gasly beat him a few years ago, I think he’s improved a lot since then.
Since it looks like Perez is there for the foreseeable, I just hope he can improve. It’s not enjoyable to watch him struggle every week.
Observer
2nd August 2024, 10:18
Maybe, just saying, since they know for certain that Perez (the number 2) never gets an equal car, and keeps quiet, he’s a keeper. They can’t risk the Chosen One ™ having any competition, it might upset him, and risk all that investment.
S
2nd August 2024, 10:30
It’s still interesting to see how many people don’t see it this way.
Red Bull have almost always given preference and priority to only one of their drivers – both operationally and in car development. You’d have to go back to their first couple of seasons in F1 to find a year when they weren’t a one-driver team by choice.
They want to do F1 this way, and – on balance – it’s worked out very well for them so far.
The WDC is more important to them than the WCC, so that’s what they aim for and develop towards.
José Lopes da Silva
2nd August 2024, 13:58
It’s still quite interesting, indeed. One can wonder why it is.
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 19:12
Most teams do a #1 and #2 driver setup.
I think RBR are taking to extremes in having a #1 and a #10.
But Max is happy, so all is normal.
HAL
2nd August 2024, 10:29
These stats are Logan Sargent like… Memory can be selective, but I don’t remember a driver surviving with such bad stats in a top team. I still don’t really understand how RB did not replace him with any of their drivers.
Janith
2nd August 2024, 13:29
Albon was 17-0 against Verstappen in 2020 I think.
Edvaldo
2nd August 2024, 14:54
Probably because they would lose the mexican money.
Coventry Climax
2nd August 2024, 11:38
This situation has been going on for way too long already.
It doesn’t matter what excuses Perez comes up with and in the end it also doesn’t even matter how much money he brings.
It is inevitable that people in the Red Bull team get sick of working their socks off for a driver that is simply unable to deliver a decent result on a more than just haphazard basis.
I would not be surprised if that is why Red Bull is losing personnel.
There’s always two sides to that story; a feeling of unhappiness (discontent, boredom, hours, remuneration, atmosphere; you name it) and opportunities elsewhere.
So keeping Perez is not just losing points and championships, it’s also about generating rot in your own team.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:44
Having to answer endless questions about Check must be exhausting. And like you said, it’s not very inspiring to have one of your cars driven by Pastor Mazepin.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:45
Checo* (damn autocorrect). Chekov’s gun!
SteveP
2nd August 2024, 14:22
Aw, Maldenado wasn’t that bad, even if he did pick up the “Crashtor” nickname
I think his crash per season record was lower than Max’s first few seasons.
Plus, the correct spelling is “Mazespin”
AlanD
2nd August 2024, 19:39
Steve, to split hairs, the correct spelling is Мазе́пин, but the normal English letter transcription of that is Mazepin, no S.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 22:55
lol, Mazespin. Best nickname ever.
Pastor wasn’t slow. He just made really, really poor decisions and had a lot of crashes. The crashes part is why I used Pastor and Mazespin for the lack of pace.
Andy (@andyfromsandy)
2nd August 2024, 11:44
Some of the headlines surrounding Perez make it seem as if the media has shares in ORBR and want to have a say in how the team is run.
It might be a losing pairing for the WCC but really does anyone think the team cares what the headlines say?
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 11:46
Yes.
Coventry Climax
2nd August 2024, 12:33
Exactly. That’s the whole point of sponsoring and marketing.
Oracle want to sell database technology licenses and RB want to sell cans of soda.
That’s all driven by public opinion.
So I could add to my post, above, that Perez’ malperforming might also drive sponsors away.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
2nd August 2024, 11:50
If Liberty is behind this, they might as well not bother racing in Mexico from 2025 on if PER in a seat is the only reason people go to the races. Maybe schedule a 4th race in the US.
Edvaldo
2nd August 2024, 14:52
This graph could’ve exactly the same, and the team would be completely satisfied had Perez not crashed his car a couple of time and had added some 70 points to his tally.
Since he joined Red Bull, he rarely if ever beat Max fair and square, yet he got 2 new contracts out of that, so that’s what they expect from him.
A little adjustment from him and he’s good to go to his brand new contract.
David BR (@david-br)
2nd August 2024, 15:33
I’m constantly surprised that Pérez’s similar slump last year isn’t mentioned much. It wasn’t unpredictable. That’s one aspect. The other is that Red Bull have finally been caught in terms of car performance and whatever they’re doing to keep Verstappen in contention probably isn’t helping Pérez as they have quite different handling requirements. And their chief designer is leaving. And whatever their merit, there were a lot of rumours that the Verstappens were looking (or threatening) to jump team, which probably complicates any driver decision.
I suspect it’s too late for 2024 anyhow. Can a new driver get up to speed and perform at even Pérez’s mediocre before much of the season is over? Should have been done last year. Any decision should be for 2025 and beyond.
Coventry Climax
2nd August 2024, 17:48
Yes, that’s correct; where Verstappen does all the driving himself, Perez’ car mainly requires remote control for him to produce finishes -and in decent positions-, which means no handling requirements at all.
Nick T.
2nd August 2024, 22:57
LMAO
Different handling requirements can only excuse so much. It can’t excuse what we’re seeing.
Nick T.
3rd August 2024, 3:34
More stats showing just how bad Checo has been this season:
Out qualified by Logan 4-3 since Monaco
Average qualifying position: 8.29 (Max 1.86)
Average finishing position: 6 (2.28)
Races Led: 0 (Max 11)
Laps Led: 0 (Max 448)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
3rd August 2024, 10:23
Yes, really terrible, he also scored less points than hulkenberg for a few races in which haas and hulkenberg did a great job, which is still no excuse for letting that happpen.