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 have been to this point forward of the competitors that 12 months Perez’s under-performance didn’t matter. The group would have comfortably gained the constructors’ championship with simply Max Verstappen’s contribution.
So Purple Bull endured with Perez for yet another 12 months – 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 have 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 group’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 obtained 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 12 months. After the sixth spherical he by no means achieved a single high 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 ultimate performances at Purple Bull confirmed. Sadly he could not get one other probability to show that in F1.
RaceFans’ driver rankings are primarily based partly on the scores awarded to drivers for his or her performances in every spherical in addition to different components.
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