Remarkable statistic does not speak in favour of Perez's gap to Verstappen

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13 May 2021 at 12:36
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  • GPblog.com

The criticism from outside on Sergio Perez is slowly but surely growing. The Mexican driver cannot keep up with the pace of Max Verstappen and thus can only make a minimal contribution to winning the World Drivers' and Constructors' Championship. But how well is Perez doing in his first four Grands Prix compared to his predecessors Pierre Gasly and Alexander Albon?

A Formula 1 fan has exposed the differences between these three drivers compared to Max Verstappen. All race starts, pit stops, safety cars and virtual safety cars are not included in this statistic, so it is purely about the pure speed on Sunday. Who is closest to Verstappen?

Albon faster than Perez

That turns out to be Albon. In his first four races, the British-Thai driver had an average gap of 0.284 seconds to Verstappen. Gasly was 0.739 seconds behind the Dutch driver on average, while Perez had to concede 0.773 seconds to his teammate in his first four weekends in the RB16B. The Mexican is thus furthest behind.

Yet these figures should be taken with a grain of salt. The cars of Red Bull have not been the same and they have been driven on different circuits. Moreover, Albon's first race was actually in Belgium in 2019, but due to Verstappen's early retirement, this GP has not been included. Logically, Albon's times could not be compared to Verstappen. The same goes for Japan, as the 23-year-old Limburger also crashed out then.

This might explain why Albon is the closest of all. It's an interesting statistic and even though Perez had some bad luck with his pit-start in Bahrain this season, it shows that there is still plenty of work to do for Perez, right?

However, Perez out-qualified his teammate during the 2021 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Imola. And Perez has started in the top four during two of the first four races this season, offering his support to the Red Bull strategy. 

Gasly, Albon or Perez?