Perez convinced “the pace is coming, we’re making progress”

39 comments on “Perez convinced “the pace is coming, we’re making progress””

1. 

   Edvaldo
   25th November 2024, 0:27

   Red Bull better keep him for 2025 then, because after some 40 races driving like crap, he thinks the pace is finally coming.
   1. 

      SPArtacus
      25th November 2024, 6:37

      It’s always “we” when he’s failing (which is the last 17 straight races).

      “….yesterday we understood what happened, this is how it is.”

      “…we are close to turning things around.”

      “We should have done a better job and we didn’t.”

      “So we will work hard as a team to get back in the last two races.”

      “….we got caught out…and that really hurt us quite a lot, unfortunately.”

      My god, Checo. Give up the ghost.
      1. 

         LosD (@losd)
         25th November 2024, 10:01

         As long as it isn’t “I” as soon as it’s going well, I don’t see a problem. I haven’t checked, though
2. 

   Dane
   25th November 2024, 0:59

   What a relief! Now that the championship is over, Perez’s pace is coming.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      25th November 2024, 4:59

      Ahah, at this rate of improvement, where basically he became really uncompetitive late 2022, improved a bit in 2023, became terrible mid season, improved early 2024, became the worst I’ve ever seen mid season, I wouldn’t trust on perez coming good by 2030!
3. 

   Applebook
   25th November 2024, 2:23

   Perez, for two full years, has been underperforming his car more than Lance Stroll, yet Lance is the one who gets even more hate than this guy. I’m jokingly suggesting that Lance replaces Perez. Surely, he cannot do worse.
   1. 

      ludewig
      25th November 2024, 18:53

      To be fair, Perez is actually a nice person, and he does try. Lance often makes it clear that he doesn’t care.
4. 

   EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
   25th November 2024, 2:40

   I do have a little bit of respect for Perez as a driver left as he has certainly had some great performances over the years. But otherwise I am beginning to question his sanity. Though perhaps I should question the sanity of Red Bull even more. Paying someone to poorly so poorly represent their product is just mad.

   Perhaps I’m just getting too old to understand ‘what makes sense’ nowadays. What with US presidential candidacy, Tyson fighting again (against a youtuber), and ongoing confusion as to what was wrong with just he and she….. ?!?!?!?
   1. 

      Jay
      25th November 2024, 6:23

      It’s not hard to figure any of that out. Money and desperation, for all of it.
   2. 

      SPArtacus
      25th November 2024, 6:47

      Well, RBR doesn’t pay him at all. Checo’s sponsors pay Red Bull for his seat and pay his salary. They didn’t want a challenge for Max (but I doubt Max could be challenged) and they loved all the $ he made them as long as he wasn’t embarrassing the team week-after-week.

      Between the fact he’s become too much of a distraction and that without a dominant car, they’ll want a rear gunner who can actually help Max, I don’t see any chance of him being around in 2025. They created a problem with no good solutions by not signing Carlos, Alonso, etc. when they had the chance. If they put Liam or Franco in that seat, it’ll destroy their career. I predict they will eventually put Yuki in that seat for just that reason (hell, maybe even Bottas if they don’t promote YS). Though, if they don’t rate Lawson and I don’t think they do, they might sacrifice him to the wolves and put him in the RBR.
      1. 

         S
         25th November 2024, 8:13

         they’ll want a rear gunner who can actually help Max

         Their technical direction and operational decisions over the last 15 years suggests otherwise.
         Red Bull don’t typically make cars that get the best out of two drivers – they choose one driver and design the car to exploit their driving style to the fullest.
      2. 

         EffWunFan (@cairnsfella)
         25th November 2024, 8:28

         Whilst I was aware of the sponsor angle, I am unsure how that compares to the potential lost constructors earnings. Though to be fair, Max (and at times the car) have carried most of that burden.
         1. 

            Ronald
            25th November 2024, 15:13

            The sponsorship related to Perez is reported to be $25-30mln. Even if that is an exaggeration, the difference between number 1 and 3 in WCC is reported to be $30mln. So financially it does not matter that much and as a result of his failure they will have a lot more time on the wind tunnel next year.

            The problem is we will never know which part of the difference between Verstappen and Perez is capability, and which part is car.
            1. 

               SPArtacus
               25th November 2024, 19:01

               From what I’ve heard, it’s far more and even if it isn’t, he, unbelievably, is responsible for selling literally more than double the merch Max does.
      3. 

         Esploratore (@esploratore1)
         25th November 2024, 20:08

         A red bull seat is an opportunity, no matter the circumstances; I think if tsunoda and lawson read your post they would disagree it’s a bad thing being promoted to red bull, it’s an attempt: either you’re good enough or you’re not.
5. 

   Jere (@jerejj)
   25th November 2024, 5:12

   I’m skeptical as long as nothing changes results-wise.

   From the T-cam angle or even offboard one, Tsunoda’s car didn’t seem to lift off from hitting the 80 km/h zone end marker polystyrene, so only marginally in the end.

   COTD: As next season is within the current technical regulation cycle, the top teams will indeed start close to each other in performance in all likelihood.
6. 

   SPArtacus
   25th November 2024, 6:30

   Perez: My teammate was P3 in the session while I was P16. “The pace is coming!” It’s even worse when you look at it in detail. Of the 4 cars behind in that session, 3 didn’t have a chance to post a representative time. Whether it’s all mental or he just can’t adapt, is irrelevant. The endless stats people keep citing to demonstrate just how bad he has been make this an untenable situation. I see no way he is retained. Even RBR is no longer trying to defend him or make excuses.

   Forget the fans, he needs to quit for his father’s sake alone. His dad suffered a literal heart attack when he collided w/Sainz in Baku + his verbal attack on Ralf show he takes his son’s reputation way too seriously.
   1. 

      Esploratore (@esploratore1)
      25th November 2024, 20:11

      Baku was a shame, for once perez had a good performance (could’ve been the last of his career) he ended up involved in an incident with another driver on last lap or so.
7. 

   S
   25th November 2024, 7:41

   TI Aida?
   That would be Okayama International Circuit, and hasn’t been called “TI” anything since 2004.

   One improvement Liberty Media have made is not ignoring the champion when they win but don’t finish on the podium – always a bizarre feature of the Ecclestone era

   I disagree. I think it’s right that the winners at each event are given the full attention. There is another, separate event for the season champion.
8. 

   SPArtacus
   25th November 2024, 8:01

   Could you please report an average fan rating of the GP in the Monday roundup following a GP. I think that would be interesting. Just seeing the % each number got alone isn’t very illuminating, unless it’s incredibly weighted one way or the other.
   1. 

      notagrumpyfan
      25th November 2024, 9:47

      The problem with ratings on this site is that only some take it seriously.
      Many rate a race 1 or 0 just because they don’t like an aspect of the event, rather than the race itself. It is especially obvious after sprint races.
      You see a similar tendency in the DotW voting. There will always be some bias (probably for all voters), but some weekends it’s just extreme.
      1. 

         SPArtacus
         25th November 2024, 19:30

         Fair point.
9. 

   Dex
   25th November 2024, 8:46

   And then he gets a single decent result, after seasons of underperforming (to put it mildly), and everything will be fine. That’s what happens when you’re a pay driver, which he is in effect (via his sponsor). This time that “decent” race may never come though, so PR washing won’t be so easy to do.
   I liked Checo, and I was glad to see him in RB, because many good drivers never get that chance; I was curious about it. In the beginning. sometimes he was decent, sometimes not, once or twice he was even really good. His first six months were okay. The rest… And that’s fine. You choose what kind of person you are, not how fast you can drive a car. What’s not okay is this constant denial and excuses, putting the blame on the team. When you’re so weak compared not only to your teammmate, but to drivers in slower cars (he was rarely anywhere near the podium when RB was still the best car), you don’t get to make excuses. Not for years… And it’s a terrible shame if he keeps his job, even though at this stage his replacement will probably be someone at his level or below, which will fuel his further excuses and conspiracy theories.
   And no, I don’t think that Colapinto wiould do much better, and same goes for Lawson, or unavailable kids like Bearman. I don’t hype every newbie who seems to be competent behind the wheel. Checo is competent, almost everyone is.
10. 

    Craig
    25th November 2024, 9:59

    I can’t say I wholly agree with the COTD. 2023 was indeed a walkover, in 2022 the Ferrari start the year slightly faster but that didn’t last long; in 2021 the Mercedes wasn’t quicker (it was close but I’d say the RB was marginally quicker much of the year) while this year the RB was superior for the first half of the season and never really dropped that far back after the half-way point. I don’t pretend Verstappen isn’t good but we do seem to very wilfully overlook how much better his cars have been over the last few years, not to mention how RB came to have such a superior car.
    1. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       25th November 2024, 20:19

       It’s not a big disagreement, but imo the mercedes was slightly quicker in 2021, think about it: verstappen had to do a much better season than hamilton in terms of maximising points available\avoiding mistakes to barely win the title, and bottas still got more points than perez and the constructor’s championship, and that was actually a good season by perez, plus mercedes had a significantly faster car the last 4 races, while red bull didn’t have that advantage for that long.
       1. 

          GechiChan (@gechichan)
          26th November 2024, 9:23

          2021 Merc was quite a good car, definately better than the RBR. People forget how they still had the strongest engines back then, especially with party mode ON.
          1. 

             Doh
             26th November 2024, 13:57

             Again an ignorant comment. Party mode was over well before that season and the Honda was considered just as good. Take it from Adrian newey who said the redbull was the better car over the season
       2. 

          Doh
          26th November 2024, 13:55

          People say the mercedes was the better car but even Adrian newey admits it was the redbull over the course of the season. And regarding that advantage don’t you remember the races redbull had before Silverstone?
11. 

    Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
    25th November 2024, 11:00

    The pace might be coming, but not from Checo. I do think some drivers aren’t given enough time to show what they can do, but Checo is a very experienced driver who shouldn’t be on any steep learning curve at this time in his career. He isn’t going to show any significant signs of improvement. The only chance for him to perform better is if the 2025 car is better suited to his driving style and brings him into a somewhat more competitive window, even if he remains the weakest driver of the top teams (potentially depending on how Kimi fares in his first season). Personally, I don’t think he has done enough to justify taking that chance.

    It’s time for Redbull to start using their young driver program as it was intended. Sack Perez, promote Tsunoda since he has the experience and has overall been better than his recent teammates, then test Hadjar against Lawson at RB. If either of the RB drivers excel and Tsunoda underforms, then you can consider switching things around, though personally I’d give Tsunoda a full year unless he is catastrophically bad.
    1. 

       Esploratore (@esploratore1)
       25th November 2024, 20:22

       Indeed, no sign of improvement, in fact: mick schumacher has been heavily criticised by a lot of fans who say he only has some defenders because of his surname, but objectively he only had 1 season in a car that was basically in another formula and 1 in a decent car, that’s too little, and judging by his rate of improvement the 2nd season he could’ve been at magnussen’s level or better if he got a 3rd season.

       Perez now is getting season after season despite being much more experienced and terrible performances, he had a fairly good season in 2021 and was a good midfield driver before going to red bull.
12. 

    Moi
    25th November 2024, 11:39

    It takes a special kind of Dunning-Kruger to actually be able to earnestly tell the press that “the pace is coming” after 22 out of 24 races, with your teammate just having become WDC
13. 

    UNeedAFinn2Win (@uneedafinn2win)
    25th November 2024, 12:53

    Older drivers with decade(s) of racing are just not going to mature in the current world of formula 1.
    This season has proven that you can take a rookie and they will fare better, not just as-good-as, than the veteran they are replacing. Nobody expected Colapinto to cause Albon to break a sweat, but he absolutely did. Bearman has performed. Lawson has had no problem racing and beating Perez in equipment where you are not supposed to do that.

    Next years grid is proof that this sentiment is shared among the grid. With the cars remaining about the same, so many teams have found a neglected performance enhancement vector to focus on: the driver
14. 

    Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    25th November 2024, 13:26

    Put Perez in an Alpine and then we’ll talk. I would not be surprised if he had wiped the floor with Max in qualifying this weekend.
    1. 

       SPArtacus
       25th November 2024, 19:32

       I’m assuming you were being facetious.
15. 

    PeteB (@peteb)
    25th November 2024, 16:58

    Pace is coming for Perez as we’re getting closer to the 2025 season. Like every year, he’ll look relatively competitive for a few races but then by race 3 or 4 when he’s already out of the title fight, he’ll start struggling to get out of Q1 again. Then he’ll spend a year trying to find a way to get on top of various non-descript problems until we get to the start of the 2026 season and we repeat the cycle again.

    It’s exactly the same thing we saw with Bottas. He’ll give it his all when he feels like he’s a real racing driver but once he settles back into support driver mode, he’ll lose a second a lap.
16. 

    Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
    25th November 2024, 18:23

    He needs to go. He had his chance in a dominant car. A young person now needs to come in. Ideally it would be good to see Tsunoda in Red Bull in the first half of 2025 and bring Hadjar into RB to test how he stacks up against Lawson. Red Bull should back its academy drivers. If it does not work, there are a few outside options in the F2 field to consider – Victor Martins, Paul Aaron, Zane Maloney.
17. 

    miciek (@micio)
    25th November 2024, 19:07

    This is entertainment. We are spectators. They are actors. Our outrage makes money.
18. 

    Alex
    26th November 2024, 2:08

    The only difference between Checo at RBR and Bottas at Merc is that the last had no money to justify his incapacity to beat his teammate. So, despite Lewis wanting him to stay at Merc (as probably Max would love to keep Checo in), Toto needed either results or money, while Valtteri could only offer butts and mullets.
19. 

    Esploratore (@esploratore1)
    26th November 2024, 23:31

    Also, thinking about the headline, “we are making progress”, he probably means when red bull ends up having a dominant car again, he will be able to end up second, like early in the season!

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