Sergio Perez has secured his future with Red Bull but so far he has struggled to match Max Verstappen in performance on track.
The Mexican started outside of the top 10 after taking a grid penalty at the Spanish Grand Prix, but only managed an underwhelming eighth place in the race.
In the last four Grands Prix weekends he has only scored eight points, causing him to slip to fifth in the Drivers’ Championship and 108 points behind Verstappen.
Part of this struggle has been linked to Red Bull’s struggle in the last four races as they have faced tougher circuits that do not suit the characteristics of the RB20. The car’s aerodynamic platform has a narrow operating window and the team is testing everything to the extreme to extract extra performance.
This trait change is what has affected Perez according to journalist Mark Hughes, who believes the Mexican faces an uphill struggle to adapt to the developments of the RB20 compared to Verstappen when speaking on The Race F1 Tech Show podcast.
Sergio Perez affected by Red Bull car trait
At the start of the season Perez’s qualifying deficit to Verstappen was a respectable 0.2 seconds. This has slipped further to an average of 0.3 seconds after nine races.
It is a trend that has continued since last year, when between last year’s Miami Grand Prix (his last pole) and the final race in Abu Dhabi the gap between the pair was a massive 0.631 seconds.
Hughes believes this is down to a key area that impacts Perez more compared to Verstappen.
“He does seem to get thrown when the car traits change. That’s where he’s fallen down the last three years; as they’ve developed the car it’s changed the traits of it.
“It’s not just the same but better. It’s actually changed its balance and the way it behaves, which Max can just encompass effortlessly, but Checo can’t.”
Things are unlikely to get better for Sergio Perez
As Red Bull seeks more performance to stay ahead of McLaren, who appear to have slashed their advantage, Ferrari and Mercedes, it is likely going to favour Verstappen more than Perez.
Red Bull previously had a healthy performance gap they could lean on if the balance did not suit Perez at a particular circuit.
READ MORE: F1 2024 teammate head-to-head battles including race, Sprint and qualifying
As the field has converged, the gaps have closed in qualifying. If a driver is three-tenths off the pace, they could be out in Q1 and be starting races at the back of the grid.
Unless Perez finds a breakthrough in car setup or attempts to get closer to the driving style of Verstappen, it could be another challenging year for the Mexican who needs to impress to keep his seat for the future.
The post ‘He’s fallen down’: Sergio Perez ‘thrown’ at Red Bull by unavoidable issue over past three years – journalist appeared first on F1 Oversteer.