He talked a massive game during the opening races, but he’s failed to get into Q3 at half the races so far. It’s incredible how Verstappen just stomps everyone thrown into the other car, young or experienced, and in every area. I honestly don’t think Checo “the tyre whisperer” Perez is better than Ver at tyre-saving, nor strategy, nor raw pace…
Is there anyone who RB would feasibly replace Per with? Maybe Norris? I’m not a huge fan personally, but I know he’s got plenty of cachet at the moment.
My bold prediction is that we will see him and Sainz swap seats
I think, that the current situation might be the best possible one for Redbull. In F1 there is and will always be competition between teammates, this is natural and good for the sports. It is only logical that Checo had a go at the championship, therefore Redbull will be very happy to see that he failed this miserably. If anything, Checo can put his title aspirations to rest and be the second driver that Redbull wants him to be. Not saying that I don’t want Checo to win the championship, but he is currently also realizing that he will not win it from Max. This realization could make him a better second driver, a role in which I think he would fit perfectly at Redbull for years to come.
Red Bull will want to win both championships, Perez is being helped out by Merc and Ferrari being off the pace and Stroll not performing the same as Alonso. If any one of those 3 teams had their ducks in a row then Perez would be under extremely high pressure to get podiums. Right now with the 2 works teams and Alonso fighting for points it keeps Red Bull on top.
I think your logic is slightly flawed. If your driver is aiming to be second best, then they’re already spent. You can’t have Perez out there looking to be just slightly worse than Max. You want him to think he can win, always hovering in the vicinity, but never offering a real threat (just like Bottas).
I think the reason why Gasly and Albon failed so spectacularly is because they were both told, “don’t even try and beat Max, just get close” and they were too inexperienced and insecure to say “fuck that”.
If Checo now believes he can’t beat Max, that is probably the reason he isn’t even close to P2 anymore. Because no matter what he does, he will ascribe his failures to “not being as good as Verstappen”.
Agree with other people here. As long as Max gets the championship and RB wins the constructors I don’t think Perez needs to worry.
Of course getting 1 and 2 on the championship would be preferred but getting someone else on that car, adapting not only the car but the people too, the team, to the new driver and make sure they have the same goals, all that at this point in the tournament when I think it’s safe to assume RB will win both championships, seems too much of a hassle and unneeded. Perez seems safe on that seat to me. Could be wrong tho.
Ricciardo is the reserve pilot and he’s waiting for a chance to return. Perez is just making Horner’s decision easy, he won’t be around much more if he doesn’t improve his racing.
Exactly. Verstappen didn’t leave Ricciardo in the dust when they were teammates. Admittedly, Verstappen had not yet reached his prime, but I’m still certain Ricciardo would do well in the second car.
Are we forgetting that Ric got absolutely destroyed by Norris? I don’t think he’d do better than Checo.
Maybe Ric meshes better with the way the RB handles? He had a very established driving style at RB which didn’t wind up translating to the way the McLaren ran. Maybe throwing him back into a RB/RB adjacent car will help bring out the better performance he exhibited in the RB.
I like Perez, but he is underperforming. Who else have they got, though? Tsunoda and De Vries won’t be any better.
There’s two drivers I could maybe see being an improvement while still being a clear number two: Bottas and Sainz. But I’m not sure it’d serve Red Bull’s goals in the long run.
Ricciardo is their reserve driver, and was able to keep pace with Verstappen when they were teammates (although VER only got better and RIC only got worse since that time). The driver market is a bit thin at the moment.
