Perez Struggles: Red Bull Racing's Revolving Door
Red Bull Racing have an immensely talented driver in their two-time world champion Max Verstappen. Whilst Verstappen seems to be secure with Red Bull for as long as he wishes to stay in the championship, the second seat at the team does not come with that same security. The revolving doors of Red Bull Racing’s second seat have seen mid-season demotions and last-minute replacement decisions in recent years. With a run of poor results for the driver currently in that seat, Sergio Pérez, questions are arising about his future with the team.
After Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull Racing at the end of the 2018 season, Pierre Gasly was promoted from the Red Bull junior team Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri). With high expectations and big boots to fill, Pierre Gasly hit the track alongside Max Verstappen. However, the young Frenchman struggled with finding his rhythm, with a number of crashes and poor luck he could not match the performance of his teammate. In the middle of the season which saw him promoted to the prestigious team, he was demoted back to Toro Rosso.
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By demoting Pierre Gasly, Red Bull had the opportunity to experiment with another driver. Alex Albon was given the opportunity to showcase his talent and prove himself at Red Bull. With some promising results, Albon was unable to consistently mount a challenge on Verstappen. Late in the season, it was announced that Albon would be taking on a test driver role. He was out of a Formula 1 seat and joined the other “Red Bull Rejects”.
Enter Sergio Pérez - a driver who has shown a lot of skill and talent in his long career in Formula 1. He regularly demonstrated throughout his career that he could extract the maximum from his machinery, particularly at Racing Point (now Aston Martin).
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It was a surprising move for Red Bull Racing, who typically take drivers from their extensive driver development pool. Pérez was expected to demonstrate his talents at Red Bull, with the expectation that if he did not perform, he could lose his seat - as with Gasly and Albon.
At times, Pérez has been able to follow and surpass the performances of his teammate Verstappen. Following a spell of inconsistent performances from the Mexican this season, there have been doubts surrounding his position.
Verstappen is currently 69 points clear of Pérez at the top of the Drivers’ Championship. With two race wins and four podiums overall compared to Verstappen’s six race wins and eight podiums overall, Pérez is “very concerned” about his struggles.
Since taking pole for the Miami Grand Prix in May, Pérez has failed to make it into a Q3 session for three consecutive races. In Montreal, his qualifying pace was drastically behind Verstappen’s: 1.3 seconds behind in Q1 and 2.2 seconds behind in Q2.
Given how Red Bull have operated in recent years, it isn’t surprising to see people discussing who could replace Pérez should he not find some more pace. Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are just some of the names circulating to replace him.
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Despite his poor comparative performance as of late, Pérez remains to be safe for now. Christian Horner shared that he believes that this is just a temporary issue: “I think he’s had three difficult weekends and three difficult Saturdays that then puts you on the back foot on a Sunday.
“We’ve seen what Checo is capable of only a month or two ago, and I think he just needs to have a strong weekend to find that confidence, and then I’ve got no doubt he’ll be back.”
Sergio Pérez is under contract with Red Bull until the end of 2024, and it seems that his recent lack of performance is not a major concern to the team - partly due to the significant performance difference between Red Bull and the rest of the grid.
Red Bull’s revolving door is seemingly closed for now, as the team look to give Pérez a chance to recover his form - an opportunity that his predecessors didn’t necessarily receive.
