The image of Sergio Pérez being overtaken in the pit lane at the Qatar Grand Prix demonstrates that the driver was not impervious to his chaotic season. Behind a heckled Max Verstappen, but despite everything crowned world champion, the second Red Bull driver shone through his mistakes. Far too inconsistent and bordering on acceptable, this time its results were not without consequences for the Austrian team.
288 points in 2022 and 258 in 2023, the Mexican has always ensured a good harvest, allowing the team to glean two manufacturers’ titles in recent years. Which explained his renewal: a driver not making waves, but ensuring the essentials, everything that Helmut Marko, boss of Red Bull, is looking for, to put a driver in the shadow of Max Verstappen.
By dissecting Sergio Pérez’s disastrous season in figures, we better understand why, despite dominating for several years, Red Bull has not won any constructors’ titles in 2024.
4
This is the driver’s reaction time in seconds when the light turned green at the Qatar Grand Prix, a barely believable image that made the rounds on social networks. This resulted in the driver being overtaken in the pit lane by Franco Colapinto, an unusual place for this type of action. Initially, a pilot’s concentration is supposed to be at maximum, explaining reaction times in thousandths of a second sometimes. This image demonstrated that the driver is no longer there, knowing himself to be in a probable ejection seat, perhaps that of his last Grand Prix in F1…
6
This is the number of times Sergio Pérez has been eliminated from Q1 this season, the first part of qualifying. A result that is difficult to accept for a driver who, even if he does not drive a copy of Max Verstappen’s car, is supposed to compete for the top 10 in each race. Of these 6 Grands Prix where he qualified beyond 15e place, there have only been two where the driver managed to get back into the points at the end of the race… Sergio Pérez therefore lost a lot of points this season because of his failed qualifying.
43
This is the number of points scored by Sergio Pérez between Monaco (8e round of the season) and Las Vegas (22e round of the season). A crisis of confidence may be caused by a serious accident in the Principality, even if the pilot emerged physically unscathed. Over 14 races and 2 sprints, the driver has never finished higher than 6e. A real bad patch, having also cost Red Bull the title.
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4 861 000
This is the number in dollars of damage caused by the Mexican to his Red Bull at the start of the last Grand Prix. Sergio Pérez prances alone at the top of the standings, far ahead of Logan Sargeant, for example, who was sacked by Williams this season due to his lack of performance. Also for comparison, a Pierre Gasly at the wheel of a poorly born Alpine, in the last positions during the first races in 2024, did not cost his team a single cent.
0
Like the number of victories or pole positions of Sergio Pérez this season, the first drought since his arrival in 2021. Even during his first year at Red Bull, while Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen fought a fierce fight for the title, the Mexican managed to spoil the party with a victory. His presence on the podiums in 2024 is not reassuring either, since he has only been on the box 4 times.
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Like the number of drivers who did better than him in the championship this year. A constructors’ title being played out with two drivers, it is difficult to imagine being able to fight for the trophy with a driver ranking only 8eeven when we have the world champion. If Max Verstappen is far from having had a perfect season, Sergio Pérez has experienced a nightmare, which could mark the end of his career in F1, at the age of 34, when we know that all the places for the 2025 season is taken and his is probably to be filled.
