Is Perez not as good as expected or is Verstappen simply too good?

Statistics

Team: Red Bull Racing

Drivers: Max Verstappen - Sergio Perez

Racing Sauce: 8-0

Points: 187 - 104

Qualifying duel: 10-1

Qualifying Difference: 0.453s in favour of Verstappen

Perez experience

After the departure of Daniel Ricciardo, Red Bull Racing is left with a problem. With Verstappen, they have a great first driver, but all drivers after Ricciardo don't come close to the Dutchman. Gasly was given a chance for six months but was very unstable. Albon was given a year and a half, seemed to be more stable, but he also didn't come close to Verstappen. In 2021 Perez gets the chance.

Everyone remembers the Azerbaijan victory and Perez's fast qualifying in Imola. It also feels like a long time ago. In the last few races Perez has lost ground, and halfway through the season, the gap to Verstappen seems to widen.

As a team, you want a fast first driver, and he can be better than his teammate. However, the gap should not be too big, because then drivers from other teams can come between your top driver and your other driver, and that will cost points. A gap of 0.453s on average per qualifying is therefore far too big. In comparison, the gap between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas is 0.199s.

Were Albon and Gasly really that bad?

Many people are still protecting Perez. He's only been there six months and has shown that the speed is there. The latter is certainly a point. Unlike Albon and Gasly, Perez has been on the top step of the podium for Red Bull Racing on one occasion and finished third on another.

However, when you compare this to Verstappen's performance, you can also argue that Perez has a much better car than Albon and Gasly had in their time. Perez now has a car that Verstappen is fighting with for the world title, while Max was nowhere near this in 2019 and 2020.

If we go back in time, we see that compared to Perez, Gasly didn't do too badly at all in his first six months. When you consider that Gasly only had one full season in F1 behind him, it's retrospectively pretty clever that he lost an average of 0.426s per qualifying. Less than Perez in half a year. Perez may have scored more points, but he also had a better car.

That Gasly only got half a year must have been due to other factors. From Red Bull, you hear more and more that Gasly had a lot of mental problems to maintain a stable performance, something that Albon managed to do better. In his first half-year, he lost 0.453s per qualifying session to Verstappen.

How good is Verstappen?

In Albon's first full season, however, he did not make the desired progress. He didn't finish a qualifying session ahead of Verstappen and actually allowed the gap to widen in qualifying. Over seventeen qualifying sessions, he eventually lost an average of 0.597s. Too big a gap for a top team that would have given this driver enough time.

With this list of three drivers, the question is whether there will be many drivers who will come closer to Verstappen? Perhaps it's not necessarily down to the other drivers, who have often been the best on the team at other times but simply down to Verstappen.

However, Red Bull will want to do everything in its power to close the gap between Verstappen and his teammate. If you really want to compete for the title with Mercedes, you need two drivers. Perez is still too often not there. If he doesn't manage to do better in the second half of the season, Red Bull might start looking elsewhere.

Did you find this interesting? Then also read the analysis of Mercedes here!