What does Pérez's 'terrible' 2024 in F1 really look like?

Sergio Perez admitted in his home race, in the that his 2024 Formula 1 season had been “terrible”, and as he scored just two points in the next three rounds, not much changed.

Rumors about Pérez's future with the team persisted throughout the year. After starting the season with a good streak as a squire of Max Verstappentheir results declined considerably after the Miami cycle in early May. He has only added 49 points in races since.

Contrary to the team's past attitudes, Red Bull Racing He looked for every possible reason to keep the Mexican; He is a popular presence on the team, and his place there is well supported by support from Mexican businesses, including the family of Carlos Slim.

Additionally, Pérez showed that he can play at Red Bull, but those results have disappeared over the last seven months. He hasn't been on the podium since April, hasn't won a race since April 2023 and has been in Q1 six times this season.

But one of the biggest indicators of his decline this season is his average difference with Verstappen in total race time, the difference in time to finish.

In each of his four seasons, Pérez has been significantly behind Verstappen late in the race. We calculated the average difference per season, removing anomalies and leaving any difference greater than 60 seconds (when not considered abnormal) as just 60 seconds to account for any loss of time in the event of doubling , or other problems that arise when you are late. .

In 2021, Pérez's first year at Red Bull, he maintained an average gap with Verstappen of 29.983 seconds. Frequently separated from his teammate by the two cars from Mercedes and generally for a Ferrari either Lando NorrisPérez had a quiet first year on the team.

Replace for Alex AlbonPérez did not demonstrate a big increase in performance, but at least he offered Verstappen more constant support and helped him at times in the title fight.

This continued until 2022, where the average difference of 11.997s between Pérez and Verstappen was the lowest. The nature of the RB18 worked in his favor early in the season, although the shift to a neutral driving balance as the car developed began to favor Verstappen more.

An average difference of less than 12s is comparable to some of the most famous number 1/number 2 driver pairs, such as Michael Schumacher And Rubens Barrichello between 2000 and 2004 (Schumacher 10,754s ahead on average) or Lewis Hamilton And Valtteri Bottas between 2017-2021 (Hamilton ahead by 11.025 seconds).

The opening rounds of the following season continued at this pace, but Perez's colossal crash midway through the season led to a final figure of 20,157 seconds difference between Verstappen and Checo. Only the RB19's constant competitiveness in the face of greater fluctuations in other cars allowed it to ultimately reach second place in the drivers' championship.

After Las Vegas, the Perez's average difference with Verstappen at the finish line of this year's F1 2024 is 34.890 seconds, which is undoubtedly colossal. With too many poor results in qualifying and a general lack of pace after Miami, this left Perez at the bottom of the points zone and in the middle of the grid.

In total, this brings Pérez's average over four seasons as Verstappen's teammate to 24,257 between them. It's the biggest difference between champion and teammate since 1995, although it's an admittedly difficult season to assess due to increased race attrition and wild gaps in rounds that Michael Schumacher and Johnny Herbert they finished.

However, it is much greater than the usual differences between Fernando Alonso And Giancarlo Fisichella in 2005 and 2006 (19,326 in favor of Alonso). This is a conclusion we already reached with our calculations last year, but at the end of 2023 the overall difference between Verstappen and Pérez was 19.931 seconds.

Pérez has finished more races more than 14 seconds behind Verstappen in 2024 than last season. And given that the 2025 RB21 will likely be an evolution of his predecessor, there's some intrigue as to whether Checo will recover, if he continues, next year.