It was hard not to feel a creeping sense of inevitability about Sergio Perez’s position at Red Bull as he slipped worryingly far from Max Verstappen’s pace.
In 2023. But Red Bull were so far ahead of the competition that year Perez’s under-performance didn’t matter. The team would have comfortably won the constructors’ championship with just Max Verstappen’s contribution.So Red Bull persisted with Perez for one more year – a decision which seemed to be vindicated at first. They still had the car to beat and Perez was still completing Red Bull one-twos on the days their rivals were half a minute behind.
But the growing threat from rival teams exposed Perez as the weak link in Red Bull’s operation. The gap between him and Verstappen widened as the pair found the RB21 increasingly challenging to drive, which ended the team’s hopes of retaining the constructors’ crown.
Perez’s season was depressing to watch. It was already heading downhill when Red Bull handed him a two-year contract extension which he never saw out. From there on it only got worse.
Sergio Perez
| Best | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP start | 2 (x3) | 20 |
| GP finish | 2 (x3) | 17 (x3) |
| Points | 152 | |
He frequently fell short of reaching Q3 or even Q2 in a car which, on average, was the fastest over a single lap last year. After the sixth round he never achieved a single top five finish. He came off second-best in midfield scraps with the likes of Liam Lawson, his 2025 replacement, and threw away a potentially redemptive podium finish in Baku by tangling with Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Perez is a far better driver than his final performances at Red Bull showed. Sadly he may not get another chance to prove that in F1.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round as well as other factors.
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Jere (@jerejj)
20th January 2025, 12:22
Second-to-last, so I wasn’t far off. At least the lowest among those who both started & finished the season.
El Pollo Loco
20th January 2025, 12:25
Once upon a time there was Mr. Saturday. Twice upon a season there was Mr. Q1. Serq1o Perez I believe his name was.
Matthijs (@matthijs)
20th January 2025, 12:41
Sergio Perez was 7th in the driver rankings in 2020. Daniel Ricciardo was first in these rankings twice if I recall correctly. So their talent was once undisputed. Now they both are at the bottom of the rankings and out of F1. Talent alone is not enough. When confidence, adaptability to the car or determination is lacking, then you are nowhere.
M2X
20th January 2025, 12:50
Perez’ talent has been disputed since his first season in F1.
On a good day Perez, like Grosjean, could be fast. But on everyday he would make a lot of basic errors and would be crash prone.
Perez is the type of driver that would often crash out on the straights on a wet track and that tells you enough about his talent.
wsrgo (@wsrgo)
20th January 2025, 12:56
I think after his McLaren season, Checo cleaned up his act quite a bit, and aside from some weird moments where he seemed dead set on keeping teammate Ocon behind on track at the cost of everything, he was a pretty reliable driver who was largely mistake-free between 2014 and 2021.
Rooie Piet (@axel3304)
20th January 2025, 14:04
Even if his talent was disputed in his first season, which I can’t recall tbh, he proved himself in 2012 and despite a rough 2013 at McLaren where he failed, he has been one of the best midfield drivers between 2014 and 2020. Before Force India became Racing Point he scored 5 podiums while his teammates scored none. When he was without a contract for 2021 half the F1 community was begging Red Bull to sign Perez.
It is a shame that he never really followed up on those performances when he moved to Red Bull, but there is no reason to smear the reputation he had before his Red Bull move.
anon
20th January 2025, 17:41
@axel3304 Perez did face questions about the consistency of his performances at Sauber in 2011 and 2012.
In 2011, that was tempered by the fact that, asides from it being his debut season, his form in the latter part of the season was impacted by after effects from his concussion injuries after crashing in qualifying for the Monaco GP. That said, Kobayashi outscored Perez by 30 points to 14, with the former also managing a string of consistent points scoring finishes that Perez couldn’t match.
In 2012, Perez did win plaudits in the earlier parts of the season when he managed to pick up the unexpected podium places in Malaysia and Canada, and then did have a second spike in interest when he picked up another podium in Italy.
However, he did face questions about his form tending to fluctuate quite a bit, which did increase when he had a noticeable slump in form in the latter end of the season. It meant that, whilst Perez did outscore Kobayashi by 66 points to 60, Perez actually had a worse average finishing position than Kobayashi in 2012 – in other words, whilst Perez did pick up those unexpected podiums, his dips in form were also more extreme than Kobayashi’s drops in form.
Whilst there was still optimism around Perez’s move to McLaren, there were a few people in some quarters who suggested that McLaren might have hired the wrong driver from Sauber given the extremes in Perez’s performances and his slump in performance in the latter half of 2012.
Whilst Sergio’s reputation was rehabilitated by his performances at Force India, he did occasionally face questions over his form there too. His 2014 season drew some comparisons with his form at Sauber, as whilst he did score a podium that season, Hulkenberg was a more consistent points scorer and usually tended to finish ahead of him, which is why he outscored Perez that season in the WDC. He did also face some questions over a few of his performances in 2017 when Ocon was able to get close to him in the WDC.
Now, it’s not to say that Perez didn’t also have good performances during that period either – there were indeed seasons where Perez did impress, and you have noted that, when the chances came up for some unexpected podium finishes, Perez did manage to capitalise on them. It’s that there were some who felt that there was a bit of a brittleness to Perez’s form – whilst he did well if he was confident and comfortable where he was, if he did lose confidence and lose his form, then his performances could drop off significantly.
Davethechicken
20th January 2025, 20:06
Sorry Rooie but the F1 community was screaming “don’t sign Perez* in 2021. “Anyone but Perez”. He barely beat Lance Stroll as teammates, finishing behind Lance as often as ahead. That was a young and inexperienced Lance too.
Sacked for a second time he clearly was not deserving of a top race car drive. Hulkenberg was an obviously better option, vetoed by the Verstappens was the chat at the time.
How right we were about SP.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 1:29
That’s not true, go read back the comments, most people, myself included, thought he deserved a red bull seat and were very happy when he got it, so probably the best article you can check is the one where it was confirmed perez would join: you certainly won’t see a lot of people complaining there.
Davethechicken
21st January 2025, 8:20
Well, then can I say “I told you so?”
Davethechicken
21st January 2025, 8:33
More seriously Esploratore, yes of course some were lauding Perez as a great talent, and you obviously include yourself in that, but many many of us were not.
It was very obvious he was not a top driver. He was never considered anything above a good journeyman, with an enormous financial backing.
When the stars aligned he performed well, but then again Maldonado won a GP in a Williams! As I say, when the stars align strange things happen.
I recall quoting JB, at the time, from his autobiography when as teammates he said along the lines of SP was occasionally fast but most weekends was inexplicably miles off the pace.
His record against Lance was eye opening. Ron Dennis saw no future for him after one season, as soon as RP didn’t need his money, they ditched him too.
Be ridiculous to believe RB hired him to be anything more than a support driver, which in the end he he wasn’t up to with age.
Rolfski (@rolfski)
23rd January 2025, 23:21
It is well-documented that Verstappen preferred Hulkenberg over Perez as his 2021 teammate. At the end of 2020, Verstappen had grown so much that he was in a position that he really didn’t care all that much who was his teammate. He would be the team leader anyway and if anything, his preference became more personal. He and Hulk got along well as both were speaking Dutch. But when the team opted for Perez it was also fine to him.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 2:05
I remember well he was very highly rated when red bull signed him, and I saw it as an injustice that he lost the force india seat for vettel, but in the end it was a good thing for him, as he was promoted.
I think he did decently at red bull in 2021, so and so in 2022, but getting worse and then terribly in 2023 and 2024, the car masked that in 2023 for the not-so-careful observers (you will find quite a few people saying, he got 2nd in the championship, he can’t be that bad), but he was still last or thereabouts in the driver rankings here, as it should be.
Chris Horton
20th January 2025, 22:59
Nonsense
Craig
20th January 2025, 14:14
I think a lot of it is confidence, which Red Bull seems to have a talent for destroying if you’re not their #1
Ankita
20th January 2025, 15:39
What do yo mean 7th ? He was 4th in the drivers’ ranking in 2020. I will pass judgement on PER only after I see how LAW fares next year. The gap between VER and him in 2024 is comparable to that between VER and GAS in 2019 or VER and ALB in 2020.
As a general matter, I read great comments on this website. I learn a lot. But what I have seen over the years is a tendency to overestimate and underestimate drivers. I still remember the numerous comments after Bahrein 2020 claiming a seat for PER after he was dropped from RP and winning majestically at Sakhir. Now, he is the worst. PER was never a top driver but for many years (2015-2020) he was undoubtedly the top mid-fielder, the only one grabbing podiums, with the greatest number of points, etc.
hunocsi (@hunocsi)
20th January 2025, 16:00
He was 7th in the driver rankings on this site. And I don’t think people here are greatly under or overestimating a driver’s abilities, but in the past season, it’s hard to say that he wasn’t one of the worst drivers in terms of performance.
Davethechicken
20th January 2025, 20:12
His season as Stroll’s teammate was a major warning. A young inexperienced Stroll had a similar pace, when they both finished a GP it was equal between them who crossed the line first.
Max has had a teammate no better than Lance Stroll for the past 4 seasons, in fact the current Stroll has likely got a lot better than the current Perez given their relative experience when at RP and his time with SV and FA as mentors.
Dex
22nd January 2025, 8:18
I saw Perez overtaking Stroll, as his teammate, having much older tires, not once, but twice in a season. And nah, Lance didn’t look like an equally fast driver, let alone a better one. But I agree that the difference wasn’t as great as what we see between the daddy’s boy and Alonso, which is rather humiliating.
David
20th January 2025, 13:23
This was the season that Max finally broke Perez’s spirit. Part of Perez’s mistake in earlier seasons was thinking that he could hang with Max on pace, but this time around, with a Red Bull that was far from the best in the field for much of the season, that meant silly mistakes and far too may Q1 exits and anonymous races.
More costly for Red Bull at the end of the day that it was for Checo, who will now have an even more comfortable retirement.
David BR (@david-br)
20th January 2025, 14:44
No, that was last season, Miami 2023, when Verstappen qualified 9th, Pérez 1st and Verstappen still swept past him to win the race. Devastating. Pérez had won 2 out of the first 4 races. From Miami on, he wouldn’t win any other (the only blip on Verstappen’s cleaning up of the race wins being Sainz’s win at Singapore).
Dane
20th January 2025, 14:39
What a sad end Perez, I once considered one of the best midfield drivers. His six wins shows he’s not a bad driver, but something went very wrong last season. Maybe simply being Max’s teammate psychologically crushes whoever is in garage next door.
MichaelN
20th January 2025, 15:05
I think this is rather unfair. Pérez was exactly what a team like Red Bull wants in the first quarter of the season. People don’t go from front-row starts and podiums to being a joke and going out in Q1 just like that. Not in the same year, with the same tyres and the same car. And that’s where the rub is, the car changed a lot in Red Bull’s desperate attempt to keep up with the other teams. Verstappen complained a lot about it too, but he still pulled out some solid results.
I wouldn’t blame Pérez for not being Verstappen. Everyone knew he wasn’t. It was Red Bull’s mismanagement that turned a dominant start to the season into a resounding defeat in the constructors championship. And they were all too happy to focus all their attention on Verstappen. I wouldn’t be surprised if all of Pérez’ feedback when straight into Spam.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 1:30
The front row starts and podiums are easier with a dominant car, which it was early on!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 2:08
I’m also convinced that despite red bull losing the dominant car they had early on, if they had replaced perez as soon as the warning signs began to show, they’d have won the constructor’s championship.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2025, 7:31
I am wholly unconvinced that would have been the case @esploratore1.
First of all, Red Bull were at that point very much facing a lot of upheaval with Newey leaving, the Horner abuse thing (and the stuff surrounding that from the Verstappen camp about maybe leaving the team due to it) – that is the context of why it made sense to secure at least one of their drivers for the next year – I actually think that Perez might have done a decent job, if Red bull had ever had a focus on making him succeed foremost, but that wouldn’t make sense when they have Max in the other car who is clearly the better driver by far.
I do think that Red Bull in general has never done a good job of managing their drivers, of giving them what they need, apart from overhyping and supporting their “star driver” to a point where it starts hurting both the team AND the driver (we saw this with Vettel, we see it with Max and we saw a bit of it with Ricciardo when HE was the man to beat for a short while).
They could afford to do that as long as they offered the best designer and design-team and the best pitwall / pitlane crew combined with boatloads of money and a clear strategy to winning. They can’t when they have unstable leadership (the Thay / Austrian sides vying for power, the Horner thing, although that was likely a part of the powerstruggle), lose Newey and many other designers, have question marks over their future engine AND have Verstappen signalling he might not want to stay. They have gotten used to being the best, but failed to realise they no longer are.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 2:09
You don’t have to be verstappen to do significantly better than perez did this season.
MacLeod (@macleod)
21st January 2025, 8:02
That isn’t true as He said that Max reported the same problems about unstable in corners. As Engineer it would be very stupid to listen & analyze the data and information of a driver expecially if they used his as test driver…..
Patrick (@paeschli)
21st January 2025, 15:13
The point of these rankings is to rate his 2024 season, not his quality as a driver over the entirety of his career.
Edvaldo
20th January 2025, 17:46
Perez has his major slip-ups in performance in the previous years, but 2024 was the stuff of legends.
45 points in 17 races driving the fastest/2nd fastest car of the season while throwing away his best performance in nearly 2 years.
What could go wrong went wrong and mostly by his fault.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
21st January 2025, 2:10
Ahah, less than 3 points per race, wow! Basically, consistently coming 8th, which would mean coming last out of the 8 drivers at the 4 competitive teams every time, was too difficult for perez (that’d give 4 points per race).
sprunkiphases
21st January 2025, 4:13
Too difficult for perez
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
21st January 2025, 5:55
Sergio should have been placed higher than 21st. My guess is about the middle of the rankings. I agree he isn’t of the same calibre as Max, but he is still a very good driver. Someone has to be 21st, but I suspect there are more deserving candidates for this place than Sergio.
BasCB (@bascb)
21st January 2025, 7:32
I agree that he should have placed higher, yeah.
Dex
22nd January 2025, 8:28
Even when having first or second best car, he couldn’t fight drivers in the fourth best car; he really couldn’t. When he had a third or fourth best car, he often couldn’t fight for points, or qualify out of Q1, fighting guys in the slowest cars (Sauber or Williams), and sometimes losing even those battles. I don’t see anyone deserving this place more than him. Except for a decent start (only a handful of races if that), the rest of his season was an utter humiliation that was really hard to watch; it felt embarrassing even to me.
And yes, I was one of those guys overjoyed to see him in RB after he got kicked out of Stroll GP.
Yannetta
27th January 2025, 2:37
Anyone remembers RB kept Sergio from using the same car? If all the comments here are based on the idea Max and Checo had the same car then i would strongly suggest all who back such argument to watch soccer instead…