It was laborious to not really feel a creeping sense of inevitability about Sergio Perez’s place at Purple Bull as he slipped worryingly removed from Max Verstappen’s tempo.
In 2023. However Purple Bull had been up to now forward of the competitors that yr Perez’s under-performance didn’t matter. The crew would have comfortably gained the constructors’ championship with simply Max Verstappen’s contribution.
So Purple Bull persevered with Perez for another yr – a call which appeared to be vindicated at first. They nonetheless had the automotive to beat and Perez was nonetheless finishing Purple Bull one-twos on the times their rivals had been half a minute behind.
However the rising menace from rival groups uncovered Perez because the weak hyperlink in Purple Bull’s operation. The hole between him and Verstappen widened because the pair discovered the RB21 more and more difficult to drive, which ended the crew’s hopes of retaining the constructors’ crown.
Perez’s season was miserable to look at. It was already heading downhill when Purple Bull handed him a two-year contract extension which he by no means noticed out. From there on it solely received worse.
Sergio Perez
| Finest | Worst | |
|---|---|---|
| GP begin | 2 (x3) | 20 |
| GP end | 2 (x3) | 17 (x3) |
| Factors | 152 | |
He regularly fell in need of reaching Q3 and even Q2 in a automotive which, on common, was the quickest over a single lap final yr. After the sixth spherical he by no means achieved a single prime 5 end. He got here off second-best in midfield scraps with the likes of Liam Lawson, his 2025 alternative, and threw away a probably redemptive podium end in Baku by tangling with Carlos Sainz Jnr.
Perez is a much better driver than his last performances at Purple Bull confirmed. Sadly he might not get one other probability to show that in F1.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are based mostly partly on the scores awarded to drivers for their performances in each round in addition to different elements.
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Formulation 1
