Perez actually has the fifth most podiums on the grid and had one more podium outside of RB than Bottas had outside of Merc.
The current situation hides how good he is and especially how exceptional Max is. The car is apparently not the easiest to drive and he has constant pressure of being a team mate of the next F1 legend in his prime.
Sure, the car is the fastest on the grid but one has to look at the consistency of Max. How there were races where his lap times were consistently within a tenth of each other. Everyone outside of RB seems to say or think that if they were in Perezâs seat things would be different. The statistics at the moment tells a different story about how that may not be as easy at people say.
But sure, there would be more battle at the front with some of the names you mention. Who knows when they are going to replace Perez and what we will see then.
Perez has always been inconsistent. On his best days he is a second level driver ( I place Alonso, Lewis, and Max as the only current premier level drivers) alongside Leclerc, Piastri, Norris, Russel which makes them all a contender for the second RB. Perez however has a major fault. He is still unable to evaluate risk on the track. He lunges where he shouldnât, doesnât appear to plan his overtakes, and consistently over drives the car. He is a good driver who occasionally gets lucky. I donât see any sign of him developing this year.
I donât think he has the potential to challenge Verstappen, but he definitely had(!) the speed and consistency to bring home the results. Is he potentially faster than Perez? Mabye. But for sure heâd be more consistent.
But it remains to be seen if he can get back to his former level. Iâm not convinced he can, but I also hope Iâm wrong.
Well he could not challenge Max a few years ago and the Max was in no way the form he is now. It will be a hard slog. I think the question is more if he would result in a more consistent team mate for Max.
I think only the older generation would (at the moment) get close to him, but I donât think they would beat him. The younger generation you mention wouldnât. Russel doesnât even belong in that list IMO, LeClerc is too inconsistent, Norris I think is just below that level and Iâm not sure how much potential to grow there still is. Piastri I think has the potential to do so in the future as he matures, but not yet.
I agree that it would be great to see Verstappen fighting a teammate, but atm I fear that would have to be one of the older two. So Piastri is our best bet to do that in a few years. Letâs hope.
Well, they did have seasons where they were dialling back to engine or otherwise both drivers would lap the entire field. That doesnât sound like less dominant than RB is now. As I said, Perez isnât even that far ahead of the others.
Mostly at the end of the season when they had already shifted their focus to next years car. I wouldnât be surprised to see the same thing happening with Red Bull this season.
Although I wouldnât be surprised if heâs open to other offers considering how Ferrari has treated him. Itâs pretty clear he wonât get a fair chance and only gets to drive in service of LeClerc.
Not a chance, the precedent set would then enable virtually every championship for the last 50 years back to be challenged on issues during the season. Some of them on multiple contentious points in a single season. Mind, Lewis would get his 2021 title!