After four years, Sergio Perez’s stint as Max Verstappen’s team mate is over.
He was the fifth driver to take on what increasingly looks like one of the toughest jobs in Formula 1. But while Verstappen monopolised the drivers’ championship during that time, Red Bull haven’t swept the constructors’ titles in the way they did in the Sebastian Vettel-Mark Webber era.Given the strength of competition they faced from Mercedes in 2021, Perez’s first year at the team, winning that title was always going to be a stretch. But the 2024 constructors’ championship undoubtedly should have been theirs. Verstappen won the drivers’ title by 63 points while Perez ended the year 285 points off his team mate.
If 2021 was a one-sided affair between the two Red Bull drivers, Perez enjoyed a stronger 2022. In the first year of F1’s ‘ground effect’ regulations there were clearly times when he found the car’s handling more to his liking than Verstappen, and his affinity for temporary tracks in particular shone through.
There were signs towards the end of 2023 that Perez had rediscovered his form, and that continued into the first races of this season. As Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was at pains to point out yesterday, Perez stood on the podium four times in the first five rounds, which was apparently the point at which they decided to commit to him for two more years.
With the benefit of hindsight, this looks like a disastrous call, as Perez never appeared in the top five again all year. He took just nine points over the final eight rounds, which was clearly unacceptable, and may have triggered the performance clauses in his contract Horner alluded to.
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Red Bull were clearly keen to reform the Verstappen-Ricciardo line-up when the opportunity to rehire their former driver appeared at the end of 2022. But his stint back in their junior team never convinced them he could still perform at that level.
Aside from Ricciardo, only one driver has shown the potential to truly rival Verstappen: Carlos Sainz Jnr. He was on the market when Horner made the fateful decision to rehire Perez, a call which in retrospect looks hasty at best.
Verstappen’s performance against his F1 team mates
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Qualifying comparison: Perez vs Verstappen
Unrepresentative comparisons omitted. Negative value: Verstappen was faster; Positive value: Perez was faster
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Verstappen vs Perez – season-by-season
2021
| BAH | EMI | POR | SPA | MON | AZE | FRA | STY | AUS | GRE | HUN | BEL | NET | ITA | RUS | TUR | USA | MEX | BRA | QAT | SAU | ABU | ||
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2022
| BAH | SAU | AUS | EMI | MIA | SPA | MON | AZE | CAN | GBR | AUT | FRA | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | SIN | JAP | USA | MEX | BRZ | ABU | ||
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2023
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2024
| BAH | SAU | AUS | JAP | CHI | MIA | EMI | MON | CAN | SPA | AUT | GBR | HUN | BEL | NED | ITA | AZE | SIN | USA | MEX | BRZ | LAS | QAT | ABU | ||
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miciek (@micio)
19th December 2024, 7:37
OK so what really happened after 2018?
1. Post-2018 were much worse than Sainz and Ricciardo
2. Max stepped up his game in 2019 and never looked back.
3. Red Bull decided they didn’t want any teammate battles after experiences of Vettel-Webber and 2016-18 Verstappen Ricciardo.
notagrumpyfan
19th December 2024, 8:17
Or a simple version of a steep Verstappen learning curve, reaching the level of a much more experienced racer in 2018. And then subsequently being joined by drivers who are still early in their learning curve, or already over their top*.
* the latter would not have created such a gap, were it not for that driver to desperately trying to drive beyond his skills.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
19th December 2024, 9:10
#2 I reckon, he’s a legend regardless of whatever rubbish I’ve cooked up in the past.
Roth Man (@rdotquestionmark)
19th December 2024, 10:00
I always remember when Max got his first big contract with Red Bull at the end of 2017 Horner made it clear that Max was their future and the team would be built around him. Then obviously Ricciardo left the next season feeling unloved.
Jos was pivotal in that contract and saw what Michael had in their time at Benetton, a team fully commited and built around one person. He got that for his son.
I firmly believe a number 2 driver at red bull from that point is a second class citizen. I don’t for one second believe they are sabotaged or inferior parts. But definitely the focus is all Max.
That being said I don’t blame them, Max is incredible. It worked with Seb as well.
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
19th December 2024, 15:25
@rdotquestionmark
Well, he doesn’t seem that incredible when racing for results against another good driver. He actually looks worse than Maldonado on those occasions and more predictable as drivers avoid numerous collisions with him per race.
Alex
20th December 2024, 15:38
Nice try, but no. More like Schummy or like Senna when they were under pressure, yes. But make him angry, and he will deliver Brazil 2024 again.
Tristan (@skipgamer)
19th December 2024, 9:12
That Perez qualifying gap is quite indicative. I imagine a trend would be pretty straight.
sumedh
19th December 2024, 9:17
I am surprised that Ricciardo and Verstappen saw the chequered flag together just 22 times in 3 years. That is some abysmal reliability.
Davethechicken
19th December 2024, 9:30
Riccardo had frankly unbelievably bad reliability in 2018 after he resigned from Red Bull. 2017 wasn’t great for him either mind.
It is a stat that should be added as it would put Riccardo’s achievements in better context
Axel
19th December 2024, 9:47
To be fair to Max, 2017 was terrible for Max in terms of luck as well. Retiring from great positions in Canada, Baku and Spa as well as being taken out at the first corner in Singapore and Spain. All in races where he was ahead of Daniel.
Davethechicken
19th December 2024, 9:56
True they both had poor reliability in 2017, but again it was Daniel who suffered most that year, not Max.
In 2018 it was ridiculous.
Daniel had 4 back of the grid starts due to mechanical failures and a further 2 start grid position penalties with mechanical failures.
Also 8 dnfs to that, 7 mechanical, one collision with Max, innumerable other mechanical issues in practice sessions.
The stats are skewed in Max’s favour, in terms of points, race finishes and laps ahead- hard to beat your teammate when you start last. Hard to finish ahead when you start last.
Daniel did not have a properly functioning car for a large part of 2018.
Edvaldo
19th December 2024, 13:05
I’m impressed how this perception that Max had worse reliability in 2017 stuck.
Ricciardo built a huge gap to him early in the season when his car was breaking left and right, but in the 2nd half, it was Ricciardo’s turn to DNF and Max almost caught him in points, and he lost 4th place to Kimi (driving a much better car) in the final race when the car broke again.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
19th December 2024, 22:12
The perfection verstappen had worse reliability in 2017 stuck because it’s true! 2018 it was ricciardo, but I’m baffled some people are trying to make it look he was anywhere near as unlucky as verstappen in 2017.
Certainly reliability wasn’t great those years for red bull generally.
Davethechicken
21st December 2024, 8:42
Esploratore
Max had 4 retirements in 2017 due mechanical failures
Daniel had 5 retirements due to mechanical failures in 2017
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
19th December 2024, 11:25
The stats seem to be missing the complete 2018 season in terms of retirements over their 58 races together see below
2016: Max finished ahead 7x (0x retirement Daniel) – Daniel finished ahead 10x (2x retirement Max)
2017: Max finished ahead 11x (6x retirement Daniel) – Daniel finished ahead 9x (7x retirement Max)
2018: Max finished ahead 14x (6x retirement Daniel) – Daniel finished ahead 5x (2x retirement Max) – 2x both retired
Total: Max finished ahead 32x (12x retirement Daniel) – Daniel finished ahead 24x (9x retirement Max) – 2x both retired
When both finished Max 20x & Daniel 15x times ahead.
roadrunner (@roadrunner)
19th December 2024, 13:48
The qualifying stats are wrong too.
2016: 11:6 in Qualifying for Ricciardo
2017: 13:7 in Qualifying for Verstappen
2018: 15:6 in Qualifying for Verstappen
These are the official records without penalties taken into account, but surely it wouldn’t end 19:18
F1statsfan (@f1statsfan)
19th December 2024, 11:11
Some of the Max versus Daniel stats are wrong seem to be missing races – they raced 58 races as teammates.
Qualifying: Max 34 to Daniel 24
Wins: Max 5 to Daniel 4
Podiums: Max 22 to 19
Points: Max 608 to Daniel 590
Edvaldo
19th December 2024, 14:47
It’s impressive how Albon and Perez’s graphs are nearly identical, apart from the qualifying ahead, which Albon probably would a few times in the better cars Perez had at his disposal.
Franky
23rd December 2024, 3:18
I don’t see the comparison in regards of championship positions podiums team championships or times in which the second driver played team work rather than getting the own result. It is frankly disgusting to see how no matter he was already axed there are a lot of people still avid to destroy what he did. Envy perhaps?