Sergio Perez's results aboard his Red Bull have not improved. The Mexican driver has avoided losing the wheel after the summer break, but it seems his 2025 is at risk. Behind him, in the meantime, Tsunoda and Lawson are raring to go.
Perez in Red Bull has become unrecognizable
It is never easy to negatively judge the commitment and performance of a driver. Behind a helmet and a steering wheel there is always a person who, at every Grand Prix, chooses to put himself on the line, risking his life to pursue his dream. So much tenacity, in short, that had so marked the Perez of the 2020 season. At the time, Racing Point preferred Vettel and Stroll for 2021. The Mexican thus ran the entire second part of the season with his back to the wall, trying to leave a mark capable of making his career in F1 survive. Red Bull earned the opportunity on the track, especially thanks to obtaining its first win in Bahrain. He who, despite numerous brilliant performances throughout his career, had never managed to get into a highly competitive car. In 2013, as an exception, he had the opportunity to drive for McLaren. But replacing Hamilton must not have been an easy task: the results didn't come, the relationships within the team quickly wore out and so that marriage never blossomed.
Let's go back to today. That Sergio Perez, tenacious and combative, who managed to convince Red Bull to focus on a driver outsider to his own academy, seems to have disappeared. The first alarm bells rang already at the end of last year, when, even with a dominant car, the gap with Verstappen it got quite heavy. In fact, from last year's Miami GP, Perez has rarely managed to commit himself to victory, much less to imagine himself as a possible rival for the world championship in the eyes of his teammate, who never feared it.
A streak of negative results: Perez has not reached the podium since the Chinese GP
The 2024 season had started along the same lines as the 2023 one. Verstappen in front and Perez behind him. That was until Red Bull stopped being the car to beat. From that moment on, with Miami still a watershed, Perez's performances have plummeted. From the Monaco GP to the one in Austin the best result for the Mexican has been a sixth place won in the dunes of Zandvoort. Some signs of recovery emerged at Baku. Even on the Azerbaijani circuit, everything turned into nothing, thanks to the contact on the penultimate lap with Carlos Sainz. In qualifying, then, the Mexican is often left out of Q3, content to start his races far from the positions that count.
Finally, ad Austin It didn't go any differently. Eleventh in the sprint qualifying and ninth at the finish line of the sprint. Qualifying was slightly better, with Perez taking a tenth place, unable to complete his final attempt due to Russell's accident. Sunday, however, saw Perez cross the finish line at seventh place, right behind George Russell and instead he started last. Yet another colourless Sunday, with the Mexican rider demonstrating that he did not have a competitive pace throughout the weekend. In short, all things considered, for Perez the victory and the podium are memories now distant, so much so that the number 11 Red Bull has not climbed onto the latter since Chinese GP on April 21st, when he arrived behind the usual Max Verstappen and the McLaren of Lando Norris.
Lots of points lost: Perez's performance penalises Red Bull in the constructors' championship
Not even the risk of losing his steering wheel during the summer break was enough to spur Sergio Perez on. In fact, Red Bull was already thinking about replacing him with Daniel Ricciardo. In the end, however, the change did not come to fruition, with the Australian forced to make room for Liam Lawson.. The latter is playing for Perez's seat together with Yuki tsunoda. The New Zealander, among other things, was able to make the difference in the Texan weekend, reaching an unexpected ninth position, despite starting from the back of the grid having used the fifth power unit of the season. An impressive result, which, if added to the decent season conducted so far by Tsunoda, puts Sergio Perez even more under pressure. Red Bull, moreover, is interested in freeing up a seat in Racing Bulls. From Formula 2 is coming an excellent Isaac Hadjar, up to now fighting with Bortoleto for the final victory.
A domino effect of significant proportions weighs on the shoulders of Sergio Perez, who, thanks to his below par performances he is causing his team to lose a lot of points in terms of constructors. With five races to go, in fact, Verstappen finds himself alone having to fight against Ferrari and McLaren, in addition to having to manage the gap for the drivers' championship with Lando Norris. A disadvantageous situation that, beyond Perez's difficulties, maybe Red Bull deserves it. In fact, the violent ways that Helmut Marko uses to relate to its pilots are not bringing the desired results, as well as being humanly questionable. In short, if since Daniel Ricciardo's departure in 2018, it has not been possible to find a driver capable of working serenely and continuously alongside Verstappen, perhaps, the burning issue It should also be Marko's chair, as well as Perez's seat.
