Why Perez’s new-era F1 promise has deteriorated into disappointment

It would make the life of a Formula 1 team that bit easier if their drivers didn’t have pesky preferences and a personality all of their own in the cockpit. Total uniformity to fall perfectly in line with the data is the ideal. Just not very often the reality.

Williams was perhaps a little fortunate last weekend in the circumstances. The team credited a small portion of Nyck de Vries’ stellar Italian Grand Prix cameo to him only requiring minor set-up tweaks compared to the seat’s usual occupant Alex Albon. The Thai-Brit, in turn, has a broadly similar driving style to team-mate Nicholas Latifi. That meant a good baseline understanding to help Formula E champion de Vries plug in and play.

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As the 2022 campaign wears on, it has become increasingly clear that Red Bull faces the opposite scenario, and that there’s a big split between what the drivers want, and what they can work with. Max Verstappen doesn’t really care what the rear axle of his RB18 is doing. He can manage however much it bucks and kicks, just so long as the front-end is razor sharp and understeer is non-existent.

That’s why Sergio Perez enjoyed a run of form in the early part of the year - outqualifying the defending champion in Monaco, winning in the principality and then pipping the Dutch ace again on Saturday in Baku. Even though it was immensely short-lived, during this period there was just a little chatter that Perez could end the season ahead of Verstappen in the standings.

If that dabbled too much with hyperbole, though, he was at least working to end the hoodoo that seemed to hang over the second Red Bull seat. Milton Keynes was convinced, too, as it presented Perez with a two-year contract extension.

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Wind on three months, however, and it’s a different picture. Even wading into battle with the troubled Mercedes W13, George Russell’s run of form looks presently to be enough to pip Perez to third in the standings. Meanwhile, Carlos Sainz and Lewis Hamilton aren’t much further behind a driver who has the quickest F1 car at his disposal.

Perez spun at the end of Q3 at Zandvoort, where he languished to fifth in the race

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

The RB18 was clearly rapid out of the blocks, but a little bloated and not at the new-for-2022 minimum weight limit of 798kg. As a result, every gram it carried over the more lithe Ferrari F1-75 contributed a greater percentage of its overall heft in qualifying and at the end of a GP, when the fuel tanks were running dry and the cars at their lightest. Hence Charles Leclerc sprinting to four pole positions in a row between Miami and Azerbaijan.

But, with an obvious flaw to resolve, Red Bull has been busy putting the car on a diet. Now, the RB18 is understood to be below the weight limit. Aside from the obvious benefit of extracting that bit more pace, it means the car is more customisable. To now meet the minimum weight limit, mass has to be added back onto the chassis. Red Bull can choose where to position it this time. This fully favours Verstappen as the bias is shifted towards the nose.

In turn, the development path has hurt Perez. Compared to his team-mate, he’s much more patient in waiting for the front to answer to helm and is less settled when the car is super pointy.

After qualifying a cavernous nine tenths slower than Verstappen and despite starting five places ahead of Sainz and six forward of Hamilton, Perez classified behind both in sixth. That’s not really good enough when there’s no botched strategy

Perez has previous for struggling to adapt to this. In a bid to bring the deficit to Verstappen down last season in their first year as team-mates, Perez focused on getting comfortable in the car by dialling out its edginess. But these concessions dropped him even further off the pace. He would later accept he had to tame the nervous machine to stay within touching distance and began to more closely mimic Verstappen’s set-up.

However, Perez is once again falling short. The ‘supertimes’ metric reveals the fastest lap time set by each driver over a weekend. Perez was 0.354 seconds slower than Verstappen in Monaco but 0.278s quicker than his stablemate in Azerbaijan. Compare that to the three races after the summer break and the Mexican is now on average 1.039s in arrears. At Zandvoort, he was only the sixth-fastest driver. That’s difficult to excuse.

There’s a debate to be had whether Perez is truly in a poor run of form. He might not necessarily be executing each race weekend tangibly worse than he was in Monaco or Azerbaijan. Instead, he could just be coming up against a natural limitation that has sprung from the car’s evolution, but still operating to the same standard he was earlier in the year. Either way, it manifests itself in the kind of mid-top-10 results that had Albon, Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat demoted.

Perez was unable to make the same progress as Sainz or Hamilton after grid penalties at Monza

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool

In Perez’s last four races, as the RB18 has truly come on song, his finishing positions have been fifth, second, fifth and sixth. Granted, at Monza he had to serve a 10-place grid penalty for running a fourth internal combustion engine. However, after qualifying (never a strong point for Perez during his 12-year F1 tenure) a cavernous nine tenths slower than Verstappen and despite starting five places ahead of Sainz and six forward of Hamilton, Perez classified behind both in sixth. That’s not really good enough when there’s no botched strategy or an extra pitstop behind the controversial race-ending safety car to speak of.

Then consider Verstappen spinning and still winning in Hungary, charging from 14th to his best F1 victory to date in Belgium plus rising from seventh to third in an instant before eventually triumphing in Italy. On his way to a second title, which he can mathematically seal in Singapore, Verstappen is clearly in white-hot form. But Perez is struggling more than ever to hold a candle to his team-mate.

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Team boss Christian Horner has been robustly praising his driver throughout the term, as opposed to running to his defence. But, on the 12 occasions when both have crossed the finish line this season, Perez has been an average of 11s behind his team-mate at the flag - the warts of Verstappen’s Silverstone damage and late safety cars bunching up the gaps included.

While there are clear perks to operating with an obvious number one and number two driver, it currently seems it is right to ask whether Perez is even delivering in either role.

Perez has struggled since the summer break and a chasm appears to be opening up to Verstappen - can he arrest the slump?

Photo by: Red Bull Content Pool