All through his first season at Crimson Bull final yr, Sergio Perez made it clear his lack of familiarity with the crew’s automobile was costing him in comparison with his crew mate.
Nonetheless he made apparent progress over the course of the season and within the remaining races performed a significant function in guaranteeing Max Verstappen clinched the drivers’ championship.
Come the brand new season, when Perez planted his new RB18 on pole place for the second race of the season in Saudi Arabia – the primary time he’d ever occupied the highest spot on the grid for a Formulation 1 race – it was clear he was extra comfy within the new chassis. Maybe much more so than Verstappen, who couldn’t make it carry out fairly the best way he needed to within the opening races.
The crew was dogged by reliability issues within the opening races. The pair pulled up earlier than the end in Bahrain (but had been labeled, skewing that knowledge level in Perez’s favour) and Verstappen dropped out in Australia too. Consequently, going into the Spanish Grand Prix, Perez was solely 19 factors off his crew mate.
Perez vs Verstappen race-by-race
That made Crimson Bull’s unhesitant and repeated issuing of crew orders for Perez to help Verstappen in Barcelona all of the extra eye-catching, and a marked distinction to Ferrari’s approach of going racing this yr. It meant that when Perez received in Monaco (aided by out-qualifying his crew mate once more, although had Perez not crashed in Q3 he may not have finished) he closed to inside 15 factors of his crew mate, a spot which may have been narrower nonetheless had Crimson Bull allowed the pair to race in Spain.
However these hypotheticals quickly turned moot as Verstappen clicked with the RB18 and Perez suffered one other technical retirement in Canada, levelling that tally along with his crew mate. Solely a lump of particles at Silverstone stopped Verstappen out-scoring Perez at each race since.
Certainly, in latest races the hole between the pair in qualifying has turn out to be worryingly giant for Perez. Whereas Verstappen’s big championship lead is in little practical hazard, there’s a widening margin between the Crimson Bull drivers which Ferrari, and more and more Mercedes, can capitalise on.
Perez vs Verstappen qualifying efficiency
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Perez vs Verstappen season abstract
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2022 F1 season
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