Sergio Perez

[mangocrazy]

I've not been following F1 that closely, but wasn't Checo pretty competitive early on in the season, especially at street circuits? So much so that Max was getting a bit grumpy about it. And haven't a lot of Checo's current woes stemmed from an inability to get into Q3 (or even Q2) due to a number of bad strategy calls?

I'd have thought Screwd would have picked up on this - it's his ballpark, Shirley?

He is a very good driver (they all are) but he's basically midfield talent in a brilliant car. His job is to be a good number 2 and stay close to Max, pick up the odd win when available. It's not strategy that is making him fail in qualifying, it's intelligence. He isn't a smart driver.

To consistently fail to get the fastest car out there into Q3 is abysmal. Looks great when he can pick his way through the field from the back but that is testament to the superiority of the RB19.

Like I say, I've not been following F1 that closely, but his strategy advisors clearly failed him in Silverstone Q1 when they didn't send him out early doors to get a banker lap in changeable, iffy conditions. That was a basic fail. So it's not just Perez who is the weak link, his crew are not doing what they need to do.

Yes, he's no match for Max (who is?) but he's not being helped by his crew.

[Screwdriver]

I don't see how that works. Other drivers in slower cars managed to qualify during that period. Plus it is up to the driver to make sure he has sufficient space around him once he's out on track.

[mangocrazy]

I don't see how that works. Other drivers in slower cars managed to qualify during that period. Plus it is up to the driver to make sure he has sufficient space around him once he's out on track.

The driver is not responsible for strategy, when to go out to avoid traffic, monitoring weather, making tyre choices - that's all the back office strategy guys and gals. The driver is just the driver. Other drivers in slower cars have benefitted from good strategy calls. Perez has been badly let down by his crew.

OK, so he's never going to podium every week, but he should at least be in Q3 regularly if his crew were up to snuff.

[Screwdriver]

That doesn't answer my question. Even if I accept your theory (which I don't) that the driver just does what he's told and somehow Perez side of the garage always gets it wrong, that does still not explain why Perez was not able to qualify in the same time period, on the same track as other drivers who did.

The gap I refer to is the infamous strategy played entirely by the driver where they speed up/slow down on their out lap to make themselves space for the timed lap. That is not something you can do from the garage though they can warn you if there's someone coming past on a hot lap etc. Then if you're in what is clearly the best car on the track, all you have to do is go as fast as you can. Perez consistently is unable to do that. It doesn't help that he has had a number of unfortunate circumstances (like all drivers do) but that wouldn't matter if he didn't also fuck up all on his own.

[Screwdriver]

To focus on just one example, this weekend just gone at Silverstone, Perez's crew didn't send him out early in Q1 to set a 'banker' lap for whatever reason. Max's crew (and most of the other crews) did. Then part way through the session the rain/drizzle arrived and all of a sudden lap times increased by a significant amount. No fault of Perez, but all down to his crew. Max's side of the garage saw a problem coming and dodged it, Checo's side (for whatever reason) didn't see the problem and Perez suffered fot it.

And this has been a pattern over quite a few races this year. Curious, huh?

In that one example excuse, Perez put himself in the position of having one shot at getting a decent lap time when he was given two opportunities per session. With a car as fast as the RB19, he could conceivably be quicker on multiple Q1 laps, time permitting.

Having put the team in a position where their number 2 had only one more chance at qualifying in the top 15 (!), they sent him out early after a red flag. Yes he was "unlucky" that he was held for so long before the track was cleared but even then, he couldn't get his tyres back up to temperature (a Perez trait) and delivered one of the slowest laps in unarguably the quickest car.

As for the "curious" comment. What are you suggesting? A deliberate ploy by Red Bull to keep Perez out of the way? Max is so far ahead of the rest of the field, that seems unnecessary. Max is of course leading the drivers championship but he is also leading the constructors points standings, all by himself!

I feel more sorry for Russell and Piastri, both of whom had the misfortune to have an excellent drive demoted due to a safety car. That is proper bad luck, not the litany of excuses Perez comes out with after ever qualifying fail.

[mangocrazy]

I'm not denying that Perez is falling short - he manifestly should be producing better results with that rocket ship of a Red Bull underneath him. All I'm saying is that his crew is working about as well as he is; i.e. not very. Helmut Marko has told Perez to 'get a grip' on his quali performances - I think that should have been addressed to the wider team behind him, as well as singling out the driver.

Agree about Piastri and Russell - that safety car stymied their chances of a podium. But shit happens - a safety car robbed Hamilton of an 8th World Championship.

[JamJar]

I think you guys are downplaying his results a bit. In the last 10 races he has 2 wins, 2 seconds, a third, a fourth, a fifth, 2 sixths and a 16th and only got into Q3 4 times. His results are good enough .

[mangocrazy]

I think you guys are downplaying his results a bit. In the last 10 races he has 2 wins, 2 seconds, a third, a fourth, a fifth, 2 sixths and a 16th and only got into Q3 4 times. His results are good enough .

I think the point to be taken from that is - how much better would his results have been had he got into Q3 a lot more often? There'd have been a lot more 2nd places, for sure, which is what RB want.

[Bigjawa]

I see they have dumped De Vries from Alpha Tauri and brought Danny Ric back, knowing the way Marko and Horner work, I wouldn't be surprised if Perez gets demoted after a few more bad weekends and Ricciardo gets promoted to the RB seat.

[Screwdriver]

Plus Ricciardo alway insisted he wouldn't get back into F1 unless it was with a winning car...