Sergio Perez has admitted he has endured a poor year as he prepares for his home grand prix this weekend in Mexico City.
The Red Bull driver sits seven places and 204 points behind team mate Max Verstappen in the championship standings. Red Bull lost the lead of the constructors’ standings to McLaren last month and are now under pressure from Ferrari.Mexico’s most successful driver in history heads into his home grand prix having failed to score a podium finish since the fifth round of the championship in China. He says a good performance in Mexico will help him to feel better about how his 2024 has gone so far.
“I know I’ve had a terrible season, a very difficult one,” Perez admitted. “It started really well, but it’s been really, really difficult.
“For me, if I get a strong result, it can definitely change my season massively in terms of personal feelings. So I’m really up for it.”
Perez has finished on the podium at his home race twice before, in 2021 and 2022, both as a Red Bull driver. He says he is eager to return and bring joy to his home fans this weekend.
“I think that moment will stay with me forever,” he said, “having my son up there with me on the podium, watching me. It’s something that I hope he remembers forever. If not, I’ll have the picture at least to show him when he’s older, you know. And those moments, I think, are the ones that really matter to me. And I hope I can repeat that one this weekend.”
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Red Bull appeared to have lost ground to their rivals in recent months before last weekend in the United States where Verstappen won the sprint race and was in contention for the race victory. Perez says his form as a driver has reflected that of his team over the second half of the season so far.
“I feel that I’m in the same boat as the team,” he said. “We’re working towards solving it. We found a big issue in Monza. So after Monza, we thought we were finding directions. We’re heading in the right direction.
“I think this is Formula 1. Sometimes the results are not coming, and you just have to make sure you keep your head down, you focus on the stuff that you can control, and the rest is something that you cannot get bothered with.”
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2024 Mexican Grand Prix
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Jonathan Parkin
25th October 2024, 16:17
I’m still at a loss to explain how Sergio collapsed after being on form after China
Since Miami he has finished in the Top 6 once.
Somebody must have said something to him that just completely destabilised him. And Red Bull don’t seem to want or need to correct it.
I’ve seen this before. Giancarlo Fisichella won the Malaysian GP in 2006 and then the next race he was being reemed on the radio for being too slow. His confidence should have been sky high after his win, but one race later it was in the gutter
How about Alex Wurz. Allowed to use the spare car one race, he was like a different driver
Or Jarno Trulli, whose performance also tanked after he lost a podium on the last lap of the French GP in 2004. This was the driver who had given the Renault team its ONLY win that season
Jere (@jerejj)
25th October 2024, 17:06
Ikr. Drivers suddenly losing their ability to perform consistently or totally flopping after a given point is weird.
Edvaldo
25th October 2024, 17:17
Red Bull wants things as they are now because Max is winning anyway, and they’ll have more time in the wind tunnel by finishing (likely) third in the WCC.
anon
25th October 2024, 17:45
In the case of Trulli, there was considerable conflict between him and Briatore, with Trulli claiming that Briatore was biased in favour of Alonso and was abusing his position as team leader, as well as Alonso’s manager, to obtain favourable treatment for Alonso.
That relationship had been strained for some time, so it’s debatable whether that really was the cause of things or, as some suggested at the time, more of a symptom of how dysfunctional that relationship had become by then.
PeteB (@peteb)
25th October 2024, 19:06
It happens in all sports to be fair. Talent and mentality are completely separate things. You can be the most talented person in the world but if you fall apart every time something doesn’t go the way you intended it to, you’ll struggle to perform consistently.
Nick T.
25th October 2024, 19:26
Only one top 6 since Miami is even worse than I thought he was doing. That’s beyond alarming. And a 204 point gap. There’s literally no way to explain your way around that.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
25th October 2024, 22:09
Trulli notably outperformed alonso in 2004 when both were driving the same car, a rare feat!
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
26th October 2024, 19:25
what is clear is that something happened to their car, and truth be told, the commentators were forming the narrative for the curbs the whole weekend if memory serves.
What happened is that it got a lot harder for RBR to win, and because Checo is #2, it gets twice as hard for him. Just look at Marc Marquez when the “performance” drifted towards Ducati, courtesy of the Michelin tire change. The #2 rider was a complete after thought, same with Yamaha. Its normal for #2s to completely fall off when times are hard.
But, hes been at least a standard deviation behind Max since the previous year when politically the fire was turned up. This is ultimately what did him in, and why I feel hes not going anywhere on that team, because he just doesn’t have the political or mechanical momentum backing his efforts.
When the “performance” shifted from RBR to McLaren, almost overnight, wink wink, nod nod, it gave the series new life, because now Lando gets to chase Max, like Lewis in 2021, and F1 gets to have lots of fans, ticket sales all the way up to the last race of the year. Because thats whats really going on. Cough Pirelli, Cough.
SteveR (@stever)
25th October 2024, 16:20
Tomorrow, tomorrow, but never today, that’s what all the lazy folk say….
Asd
25th October 2024, 17:36
Just look how Pato O’Ward – the best Mexican racing driver – is being welcomed by the Mexican fans:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/2q1rs3-15AE