As the 2024 season neared its end, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted his decision to hand Sergio Perez an early contract extension in June “obviously didn’t work.”
Having been comprehensively beaten by team mate Max Verstappen for much of 2023, their third season alongside each other, Perez got his 2024 campaign off to a promising start. But his form nose-dived soon afterwards and Red Bull found themselves inundated with questions over whether they would do a U-turn over their decision to extend his contract until the end of 2026.As the final race approached, Red Bull finally admitted his position would be reviewed after the end of the season. After he was blamelessly eliminated on the first lap of the season finale, Perez said they will discuss “what’s best for everyone going forward.”
After the season he’s had, it’s hard to imagine Red Bull continuing with him for another, let alone two. Here’s how bad it got for Perez in 2021.
One good quarter
Six points in he lay second in the standings on 103 points. Incredibly, he scored less than half that – just 49 points – over the remaining three-quarters of the season.
One shocking third
Perez’s form over the final third of the year stood in sharpest contrast to the start of the season. From those eight rounds he took just nine points; Verstappen picked up 134 over the same period, out-scoring his team mate by a factor of almost 15.
During that time 11 other drivers scored more points than the driver of the second Red Bull, including the drivers from their closest rivals McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. The others who claimed more points than Perez also included Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg (both Haas), Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon (both Alpine). Perez only picked up one point more than RB’s Yuki Tsunoda over this period.
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Widest gap in championship
While Verstappen clinched the drivers’ championship with two rounds to spare, Perez put a lock on eighth in the standings at the next round. That meant the pair ended the season seven places apart in the championship – the widest margin of any pair of team mates who entered every round.
No-scores
He went out in a first-lap crash with Kevin Magnussen in Monaco, slid into a barrier in Canada, spun at a restart in Qatar and was taken out by Valtteri Bottas in Abu Dhabi.
No wins
The 2024 season set a new record for competitiveness as seven different drivers won more than one race each. They came from four different teams: McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.
Perez was the only full-time driver from those teams who failed to win all year. Team mate Verstappen took the most wins of any driver, with nine.
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Never finished ahead
Perez never took the chequered flag ahead of Verstappen all year. The only time he out-scored his team mate was when a technical problem took Verstappen out in Melbourne.
Spent least time ahead
To finish ahead you’ve got to get ahead, and Perez hardly ever did that. He was the only driver who contested the full season but spent less than 100 laps ahead of his team mate. Verstappen led his team mate for 1,132 laps, Perez was ahead for 77, most of which were in Baku.
Worst share of points
Perez’s points score was the lowest of his time at Red Bull, but that is partly to do with the performance of their car and their rivals’ as much as his.
More tellingly, he also made his smallest contribution to Red Bull’s points haul since he joined them. He scored just 25.8% of the team’s points, compared to 32.4% in his first season with them.
Verstappen’s championship-winning score of 437 this year happens to be exactly the same as Perez has scored in the last two years combined: 152 this year and 285 last season.
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Biggest qualifying defeat
Perez only narrowly avoided a whitewash in qualifying this year. Verstappen out-qualified him 23-1, the widest margin between any pair of team mates this year.
The only respite came in Baku, where Perez came out ahead after 33 straight losses (including the second half of 2023). Verstappen had a ragged run through Q3 and ended up two-tenths of a second off his team mate.
Biggest lap time deficit
The qualifying contest between the pair was not only one-sided, Verstappen was comfortably further ahead of his team mate each time of asking. Over the season he averaged 0.45 seconds per lap faster (excluding sessions we deemed unrepresentative e.g. due to rain).
Stats: Perez vs Verstappen in 2024
Season summary
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Head-to-heads
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Qualifying performance
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Perez was faster; Positive value: Verstappen was faster
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Formula 1
- Trying to race with injured wrist in Spain would have been “unwise” – Stroll
- Hamilton attacks “nonsense” reports casting doubt on his future and Vasseur’s
- Verstappen says he won’t make any changes to his driving to avoid a ban
- ‘No issues’ with Verstappen but ‘it’d be different if he’d taken me out’ – Russell
- Nine races not enough to be ready for “scary” Red Bull promotion – Hadjar
Jere (@jerejj)
13th December 2024, 7:32
The stats speak volumes.
SteveP
13th December 2024, 9:04
The old saying is “Lies, damned lies, and statistics”
As Patrick @anunaki shows below.
That said, Perez is showing a near 1/2 second deficit in a winning car, in an era where qualification times are close, one second often covers the whole field, and it’s seen as significant if the leader laps other drivers once
1991 – Half the field not finishing, drivers lapped three times (or more) and one second in qualy was probably the first three or four.
Frank
13th December 2024, 9:47
Popular quote by people who do not like what they are seeing.
In truth, they are the most dependable way to reach an objective conclusion. BUT… they have to be used properly. F.e. your statistics always need a point of comparison and you need transparency on how your data was collected.
The four tenths between Perez and Verstappen are meaningless, but the fact that this is the largest gap between team mates is anyhting but.
Likewise, the absolute gap between Senna and Berger is also meaningless, as is the direct comparison with Verstappen-Perez. (Different tracks, different qualifying format, different cars, different driver coaching…) You would need to compare the Senna-Berger gap with the gaps between the other (front-running) drivers that year.
Statistics are not lies, but they are often (ab)used to lie.
Sorry for rambling.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
13th December 2024, 15:52
Never trust statistics you didn’t forge yourself
José Lopes da Silva
13th December 2024, 11:34
The thing about 1991 is the truth about a mechanical sport like F1: every 10 years the sport becomes a different one. That’s what it is.
Today’s drivers are, in average, way better than the drivers of 1991. (People who look to the past as the Glorious Times won’t like to hear.) And that’s exactly because of the example set by the Great Drivers of the past. Lauda, Prost, Senna and Schumacher set new standards for the sport. Everyone else has to adapt or lose. And that’s real sport. Today, James Hunt would not get decent results, and Andrea de Cesaris would never last 14 seasons in F1.
You can’t properly compare, then. Fangio did not set an example because, I don’t know, maybe the drivers didn’t really care. Did you ever compare the 1958 title fight (Portuguese Grand Prix) against the 1989 and 1990 (Suzuka)? Fangio had it all and he was likely 20 years ahead of its time.
It’s useful to compare with 1991 to understand he sport, but not to rate Perez and decide if he should drive in 2025. In 1996 Berger and Alesi could set up endless pranks against each other and Berger could still rely on his instinct to build a career in F1, even if he could only drive in one way as he acknowledged, while Senna could do whatever he wanted with his cars. In 2024, Perez is not at the level required.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 1:36
I don’t like underestimating old greats like fangio, ascari, clark or stewart like some people do, because it seems pretty obvious to me that had those drivers been racing in the 80s instead, they’d have adapted and troubled prost and senna.
Obviously it wasn’t possible to set the standards nowadays’ top drivers are setting now back then, the cars and eras were completely different.
But I have no doubt that the today’s average driver is stronger then the average driver back then.
Patrick (@anunaki)
13th December 2024, 8:13
So Max had a 0.45 deficit over Perez and Checo is getting blasted
Senna had 0.67 over Berger in 1991 (qualy only) so that Berger must have been a real bad driver ;-)
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th December 2024, 8:15
Obviously these 1991 cars were much harder to drive hence the bigger differences.
Patrick (@anunaki)
13th December 2024, 8:22
So maybe the RB20 is really hard to drive then?
osnola
13th December 2024, 20:13
Yep, something is well known this year.
Its the quality of the driver that handles the car and getting results .
Deerhunter
13th December 2024, 9:46
Yeah, Keith might want to consider a points system for the comments.
Every single time a Racefans commenter try to draw a comparison between two vastly different eras of Formula 1, they get 2 points. If it’s between Formula 1 and an incomparable sport, they get 3 points.
Accumulate 12 points, and you’re banned from commenting for like, a month.
Senna’s advantage over Prost in qualifying can also be ridiculous at times, but no one is ever going to seriously accuse Prost of being incompetent. That’s partly because qualifying and race trim actually meant something those days due the greater variety in setups, engine modes, etc, and I distinctively remember something about Lauda setting up his car for Sundays while getting smoked by Prost in Saturdays during their time at McLaren because of this.
Pretty sure Formula 1 these days are much more standardized, and gaps between teammates are much, much, closer as a result.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th December 2024, 9:57
To be fair, Patrick added a smilie at the end, so it might have been an lighthearted comment
Chris Horton
13th December 2024, 10:25
Yet Senna’s qualifying prowess is infinitely celebrated.
It’s interesting, isn’t it.
Patrick (@anunaki)
13th December 2024, 10:52
It was a lighthearted comment, hence the wink in the end.
LosD (@losd)
13th December 2024, 11:12
Taking jokes seriously: 6 points :p
Keith Collantine (@keithcollantine)
13th December 2024, 15:59
I think I’d get banned from commenting if we did that.
I’d have to refer myself to the ethics committee…
BenHur
13th December 2024, 17:34
That was over Berger, not over Prost (@deerhunter)
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 1:39
Should be closer to the current formula 1 rules tbh: if you reach 12 points you’re banned from commenting since the current race weekend to the next, so this is a particularly dangerous periods, but sometimes you only get 1 week.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 1:40
period*
Philip (@philipgb)
13th December 2024, 9:47
Formula 1 wasn’t the same level of data driven science in 1991 as it is now. Teams and drivers within the same team are consistently close in performance to one another than they were over 30 years ago
If you were to rewind the clock then I’ve no doubt drivers today who can be within tenths of a second of their team mates would find themselves just as far adrift as the drivers of old did
So Perez’s deficit may on paper be smaller than Berger’s, but in context I think it’s considerably worse
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
13th December 2024, 19:02
Perez is Max’s test driver. He’s there to get Max as close to the top spot as possible. His performance is irrelavent, It’s not a priority for the team, because RBR are marketing / product / consumer oriented first. And they need their ‘idol’ for people to mindlessly worship so that people will keep buying what they are selling.
Like at the beginning of the season when it was effortless for Max to win, Checo had a chance, but after what ever changed, Checo never had a chance. This is the way all #2’s work on teams. Does anyone remember Marc Marquez #2 ? No, because they were even more of an after thought @ Repsol. Nobody wants to watch Checo suffer, it’s not fun to watch, but if Max continues to suck, the #2 on that team will do just as bad or worse, unless they are much much better than Max and can sand bag, and drive a car made for Max better than Max.
osnola
13th December 2024, 20:15
The mexican market is very important for Redbull. So if your storyline holds any thruth they choose the wrong driver to achieve it ;
[email protected]
13th December 2024, 12:56
This article isn’t saying Sergio is a bad driver. its just saying he needs to be replaced.
Red Bull need something very rare in a number 2 driver. They need someone who could be World Champion in their own right, given the right circumstances, (eg Weber, Ricciardo) yet are ready to sign up for a thrashing by a great (Vettel, Verstappen).
Wer
14th December 2024, 12:19
Berger was a “bad” driver, if you want to use that word.
He spent most of his 14 year long career driving winning-able cars and that only amassed to 10 race wins. That’s not great.
He drove the dominating McLaren in 1990-1991 – achieving only 1 win.
He drove the 2nd fastest F1 car of the 1996-1997 period (Benetton-Renault) – achieving only 1 win as well.
Mind that those were very uncompetetive seasons, with only 2 or 3 teams were racing for podiums.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
13th December 2024, 8:18
When I see these stats about Perez, I only have one word: ‘HOW?’. In his entire career pre Red Bull he was a very decent driver, performing well at Sauber, Force India and Racing Point, doing well against also decent drivers such as Hulkenberg.
I really don’t think that Red Bull is deliberately sabotaging Perez, so either that car really does not suit his driving style or his confidence really nosedived. Probably both.
David
13th December 2024, 9:56
+1 was gonna comment the same.
MichaelN
13th December 2024, 10:28
Given that Pérez problems started at the time Red Bull introduced its first big upgrade, that seems to be the starting point of any analysis. I’m reminded of Ross Brawn commenting on how Berger and Alesi described the Benetton as “toxic”, but Schumacher drove it expertly. More recently, we’ve seen how Norris and Ricciardo both complained about the McLaren’s handling, but wheras Ricciardo struggled massively, Norris was mostly able to deal with it. And he’s no Verstappen or Schumacher.
Let’s also not forget that Red Bull’s “upgrade” turned the dominant RB20 into the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th best car depending on the track. That car is not in a good place and has to be pushed right to its limits. That’s never a comfortable place for a driver to be in. That’s where confidence also comes into it. When a driver starts to fear the response of the car, it just becomes a mess. Like with the 2014 Ferrari, which was a handful, you immediately saw a huge gap between Alonso and Räikkönen.
grat
14th December 2024, 0:32
In 2017, at the Hungaroring in testing, Sebastian Vettel had the fastest time in his Ferrari (with a questionable engine mode). The second fastest driver at that test was Lando Norris, in the McLaren-Honda. Kimi was 3rd fastest in the Ferrari, and George Russell with 8th in the “unstoppable” Mercedes.
Don’t underestimate Lando’s speed.
Coventry Climax
13th December 2024, 10:40
How? Well, my take is:
That’s because Perez has a certain maximum level, a ceiling if you will.
When with his previous teams, the cars were the restricting aspect, as their performance never exceeded Perez’ capabilities. That made him look not too bad against his team mates.
You can give him a car that exceeds his capabilities, but the results will never go beyond those, his personal, maximum capabilities. In fact, his results get even worse for all the added stress he seemingly can’t handle.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
13th December 2024, 14:13
I think this is a good analysis. It can happen and quite suddenly. Look at Ricciardo at McLaren. Up until then he had always been considered a very competent driver. Even WDC material 3/4 years before. The current crop of drivers in general make driving these cars look easy. But I think we underestimate how difficult it is. A few changes and someone can really struggle.
notagrumpyfan
13th December 2024, 14:56
I think it is both, with a slight adjustment of the wording: taking the car to the extreme does not suit his driving style (or ability), which causes him to lose his confidence (seeing that the other driver can hit those times).
It’s a bit like running (my current sport): my marathon time is 3h10m (4:30min/km). When training with my mates I often train at their speed 4:00-4:15 and feel comfortable. But when I start a full marathon at 4:15, then after the halfway point I lose my confidence (and ability) to keep that speed, and in the end end up with a 4h20-30m total time.
Bob
13th December 2024, 19:56
I was thinking the same thing, how can one good driver and one great driver be so far appart.
I think it’s for a big part in their heads. When Max clinched his first title, he got the confidence of champions, less stress, more zen. You saw the same thing happening with Button for example (the first few years in his case), in his years after Brawn GP, he was really at his best.
Perez had to compete with an ever greater after Max his first title he starts to overthink, you loose the good focus etc… A little like Webber in my opinion. Rosberg had the same, but was able to overcome, which in in my view is a mayor achievement btw.
Davethechicken
14th December 2024, 11:56
I don’t think Perez ever had good pace. He was dropped after a single season by Ron Dennis at McLaren, despite the massive financial incentive to keep him. Replaced by KMag.
Ron knew then what we all realise now.
Craig
16th December 2024, 10:27
Red Bull’s always been somewhat neglectful of their “other driver” and I suspect you may be right with the car not suiting him and it causing his confidence to nosedive (especially if the team wasn’t interested in doing anything about it)
Sumedh
13th December 2024, 8:40
And I thought Massa vs Alonso in 1st half of 2012 would be as bad as it would get for a championship contender’s teammate.
Really shocking. And surprising that Red Bull hasn’t been able to get rid of him. I guess their internal politics is even worse than Perez’s performance
Davethechicken
14th December 2024, 13:21
I don’t think it has ever been a case of can’t get rid of him. Red Bull haven’t wanted to, for whatever reason. Is it the South American market, is it for team harmony? They turned down Carlos Sainz because they thought Max and him would clash.
Carlos hasn’t exactly been a difficult personality in all the other teams he has been in, so on the face of it, it seems an odd reason to give.
Their pool of potential replacements must be tiny if they think Sainz is a difficult personality
Olivier
13th December 2024, 8:58
To be fair to Perez, even Verstappen has said that this year’s car was a nightmare to drive—possibly the worst car he’s ever driven.
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
13th December 2024, 9:23
Another statistic:
Verstappen scored more points in just Brazil and Qatar (2 races) than Perez did in the last 3/4 of the season (18 races!)
Ben Rowe (@thegianthogweed)
13th December 2024, 9:35
I really do wonder if Bottas actually did take Perez out the race. Sure he did spin him, but nowhere have I seen say what was the reason Perez actually retired. Magnussen took a much harder hit and went on to do FLAP.
Many other drivers have been spun on the first lap, and many other occasions with far harder impacts than that. I think I agree with some others views in that Perez likely wrecked his clutch when spinning himself back round. It is not the only time this year he’s damaged his clutch.
It is so rare for a tap like that with no visible damage to result in a DNF and that is why it feels very possible that it was more what Perez did after was what caused it. Bottas still clearly had a role in the situation occuring though. But it does seem strange that he got a penalty for that when Hulkenberg got nothing for literally colliding into Ocon, forcing Ocon into Colapinto causing damage to both and a double DNF yet got no penalty.
SPArtacus
14th December 2024, 3:25
You’re 100% correct. Perez burned out his clutch like amateur. Not even the first time he’s done it this season.
So many people are desperately seeking excuses for Perez. He should have had them around him for the interviews. Even he himself hasn’t come up with the level of BS excuses they have.
Craig
16th December 2024, 10:28
Where was it said he did that?
Coventry Climax
13th December 2024, 10:57
How on earth can you compare driver quality, but then leave out ‘unrepresentative’ rain affected sessions?
Weird. Isn’t that what sports and achieving a rank is always about? As in, be 2nd or fourth best, at the end of a season?
And has it occurred to you that Perez’ first part of the season might also have looked good because for the first races, the Red Bull car was still very dominant as compared to the other cars? Then as soon as he actually had to go race himself and show his own skills to get (good) results, everything collapsed. That’s a take that makes him look even worse, as opposed to giving him the excuse of his opponents and their cars quality (getting better?, that what was meant here?). That should never be or work as an excuse, as far as I’m concerned, as it means dual standards actually.
David BR (@david-br)
13th December 2024, 12:41
Pérez, not very fast. I think to be fair that’s been common knowledge for the past three years at least. Last season followed precisely the same pattern, good start combined with Verstappen bad luck in one or two of the opening races left Pérez looking competitive. Then plummet. Signing a new contract? Worse performance still.
Why Red Bull would repeat the same contract ‘mistake’ is one mystery – presumably financial.
But there’s another far more interesting untold story of this 2024 season: what happened to Red Bull’s performance and sudden decline relative to the chasing teams? More intriguingly still, why did Verstappen’s performance drop off more and why was Pérez suddenly saying that Verstappen was now facing the problems he’d had all season? There are lots of conspiracy theories, including pro-Checo, about why but the data doesn’t lie about Verstappen’s speed performance declining much more rapidly. After that, Verstappen clearly responded better – being the far better driver – but I feel there was a lot more going on after Newey left (coincidence or not) we haven’t really heard about.
Jo
13th December 2024, 14:37
“How on earth can you compare driver quality, but then leave out ‘unrepresentative’ rain affected sessions?”
I agree with them leaving these sessions out, as the gap between teammates is often exaggerated when it rains and depend on other factors. It can be more about who managed to set their time before rain worsens, or who was last out on a drying track.
Coventry Climax
13th December 2024, 23:42
Did Red Bull get slower then, in the absolute sense, or did they not develop and gain extra speed as quickly as (some of) their rival teams did?
I have no data to prove it, but I think they didn’t actually ‘lost speed’, but rather didn’t find more of it as quickly as the others did.
That might have been due to internal issues, with attention taken away from what actually matters, from the Horner allegations (I’m still convinced that very conveniently suited Mercedes quite fine) to Newey leaving, or might even yet be due to results of costcap penalties and aero development time restrictions, or, most likely, a combination of all of the above.
I don’t read anything at all in any of Perez’ words though, as he’s desperate to make himself appear better than he actually is, and always comes up with excuses and explanations for his below par performance. For things that go right, it’s always “I”, and for things going wrong, it’s always “we”. Horrible attitude as well as a lousy driver.
entah
14th December 2024, 2:45
Probably due to the wind tunnel time allocation based on the team position?
Leroy (@g-funk)
13th December 2024, 13:48
It will be telling that when Checo’s time at Red Bull comes to a close, his most positive impact for the team will not be winning races or pushing max, but will be him driving slowly and becoming a moving chicane to back Lewis up towards Max at Abu Dhabi 2021.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 1:59
Perez’s 2021 performance after all has been his best at red bull, even though he wasn’t quite at bottas level; some people said “give him a year to get used to the car, he will be better next year”, but that didn’t happen.
Craig
16th December 2024, 10:36
Which was meaningless, I’m not sure why people bring this up as a “thing” when it had no impact.
Edvaldo
13th December 2024, 13:54
And Red Bull will have to pay a lot to get rid of him. It’s hilarious.
They thought they were smart and that it would motivate him to give him an extension early, but Perez’s issue was never a lack of motivation; it’s just that he can’t drive their cars.
Whoever was responsible for his blunder should be fired with him.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 2:02
Fully agree, I thought that was a silly move immediately to extend his contract, especially because he was coming from a couple of pretty bad races, so if anything it was time for him to prove he was worthy of his current contract, or else go with another driver, and also because it’s a pattern by now that perez starts the season well, loses it completely mid season and improves in the end (even that didn’t happen this year), so right after the extension they were proven wrong.
SPArtacus
14th December 2024, 3:27
Hilariously dumb. And they didn’t even have the performance clause Marko kept claiming.
floodo1 (@floodo1)
13th December 2024, 13:55
Really shows how good Verstappen is
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 2:02
It’s a combination of both: 2021 perez wasn’t that bad against verstappen!
Janith
14th December 2024, 5:45
You are out of your freakin’ mind. He was terrible in 2021. He didn’t even have 50% of Max’s points and got a very lucky win. He showed better pace in the first half of 2023 than anything in 2021.
Biggsy
13th December 2024, 14:07
Coulthard once famously said, about the legendary 1998 McLaren. I’ll paraphrase it, but it was something along the lines, that most people think that the good cars are easy to drive. But he said that doesn’t say anything about speed. In F1, the only good car is a fast car. And he said that 98 McLaren was quite tricky to get, but once you had it hooked up, it was a dynamite.
The same reason why Red Bull didn’t feel the need to tackle Perez issues, but were more focused on simply adding the performance to the car. Maybe Haas this year was easy to drive, but it serves no purpose, when the actual goal is to be fast.
In my 30 years of following F1, I think I’ve ever seen only 3 or 4 drivers who can drive around any problem, and they are considered pretty much the once-in-a-generation talent: Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, and possibly Verstappen.
They all had teammates who would seem close to them when the car is perfect, but would fall way behind once the car becomes tricky to drive.
Ben White
14th December 2024, 1:35
“In my 30 years of following F1, I think I’ve ever seen only 3 or 4 drivers who can drive around any problem, and they are considered pretty much the once-in-a-generation talent: Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, and possibly Verstappen.
They all had teammates who would seem close to them when the car is perfect, but would fall way behind once the car becomes tricky to drive.”
Verstappen’s teammates are subservient and second rate (at best) and that is why they are not close to him when the car is ‘perfect’ or at any other time. Hamilton has had three world champion teammates (champions then or in the future and this number may increase with Russell and Leclerc) and Alonso has had four…Perez is a long way from champion material – or even a productive no: 2 driver a la Barrichello . Verstappen, remarkably perhaps despite his four WDCs, is an unknown quantity as a result. Like Vettel, he may well damage his legacy if he were in a non Newey-designed car with a strong teammate. I know some people say Verstappen is a great driver already but your only true barometer in F1 is your teammate and Verstappen alone among the ‘greats’ has not had a credible let alone higher-order benchmark.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
14th December 2024, 2:04
I don’t even think hamilton is as good at driving around problems as the other 3 drivers are.
SPArtacus
14th December 2024, 3:30
Hamilton isn’t very good at all driving around problems. What makes him special is that when the car is good he is enormously good with huge a ceiling and ruthless consistency. Max and Alonso, for my money, are clearly the best at driving around problems. It’s harder to judge Michael because so many times he’s had just awful teammates who were getting lesser equipment and using up their own tires in practice so he didn’t have to. He also had a lot of crashes, but cars were far more difficult to drive in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
Johnny
13th December 2024, 14:53
Max’s quality of teammates speaks volumes.
Dick Dawson
18th December 2024, 2:10
I think he has hit a moment in his racing life and he is too aware of his own mortality. Not sure what/how but I get the feeling his edge is gone. I also believe he would and will find it again in tin tops.