It’s no secret that Sergio Pérez is currently experiencing a slump in form at Red Bull. The Mexican driver started the season strong, but hasn’t been on the podium since the Grand Prix of China. He’s also been lagging behind Max Verstappen in qualifying sessions for some time now. If this trend continues, he’s on track to set a new record – but it’s not one he’ll be happy about…
Looking at the first six Grand Prix weekends of this season, Pérez was on average 0.277 seconds behind Verstappen in qualifying. As the second driver in a team with the reigning world champion, there’s no shame in that. However, in the last five races, the gap has suddenly widened. Pérez is now on average a full 1.052 seconds behind Verstappen in qualifying.
Over the course of the season, the Mexican driver is now on average 0.629 seconds behind the Dutchman. This puts him on the brink of setting a new negative record as the slowest Red Bull teammate of Verstappen. Only Alex Albon performed worse in 2019, falling short by an average of 0.634 seconds in qualifying. In short, Pérez needs to quickly find a solution if he doesn’t want to go down in history with this dubious record.
