One ‘struggling’ Formula 1 driver left Marc Priestley questioning ‘what is going on’ as their woes continued during qualifying for the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix on Saturday.
Styria has staged the third F1 Sprint weekend of the season and is so far witnessing another Max Verstappen domination. The Red Bull driver converted pole position to win the Sprint, and added his eighth Grand Prix pole of the campaign during qualifying for the Austrian GP.
Verstappen was in a class of his own to take pole by 0.404 seconds to McLaren driver Lando Norris. The second row of the grid nearly featured the second McLaren, too, but track limits saw Oscar Piastri lose his fastest time. George Russell adopted P3, with Carlos Sainz in P4.
Marc Priestley feels Sergio Perez is ‘struggling every weekend’ for Red Bull
But how Serio Perez performed – or rather did not – in Q1 left Priestley questioning why the Red Bull driver is continually struggling. The 34-year-old would only register the 12th fastest lap in the opening stage of qualifying. He also did the lap at the end of Q1 on new soft tyres.
An early departure from qualifying for the Austrian GP was even on the cards until Perez set a 1:05.587. It was enough to see the Guadalajara native advance to Q2 with a 0.149s margin to Alex Albon at the top of the drop zone. But Perez was 0.324s down on pace-setter, Sainz.
READ MORE: Five unforgettable Austrian GPs from Ferrari’s orders to Hamilton vs Rosberg
Perez has repeatedly struggled to qualify well in recent rounds. The Red Bull driver only had the 18th-fastest time at the Monaco GP, 16th-best at the Canadian GP, eighth at the Spanish GP and eighth for the Sprint at the Austrian GP. Now, Priestley fears it is getting out of hand.
“What is going on with Checo Perez?” Priestley pondered on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra. “He is struggling every single weekend. It is almost spiralling out of control.”
Perez ultimately qualified eighth for the Austrian GP after dragging his Red Bull into Q3. But he had to accept a less-than-ideal session after not saving any new soft tyres for the top-10 shootout. His poor Q1 showing that flabbergasted Priestly left Perez paying a heavier price.
Sergio Perez is not living up to his new Red Bull contract
Saturday morning was even tough for Perez with his Sprint result leaving Martin Brundle to suggest Red Bull ‘will be worried’. He slipped back from his P7 start to P8 as Charles Leclerc swept ahead from P10 on the grid. Perez even finished the Sprint 17.409s from Verstappen.
The Mexican similarly qualified four-tenths of a second slower than Verstappen as Red Bull took pole for the Sprint. Perez even went to the Austrian GP still to out-qualify Verstappen for any of the first 10 Grand prix this season or for either of the previous two Sprint events.
Yet Red Bull re-signed Perez at the start of June with his contraction extension through the 2026 season. He was otherwise due to be a free agent at the end of this year and is hardly showing why the team from Milton Keynes gave the six-time Grand Prix winner a new deal.
The post ‘Spiralling out of control’: F1 driver leaves Marc Priestley questioning ‘what is going on’ at Austrian GP appeared first on F1 Oversteer.