Despite Sergio Perez’s recent shortcomings and sudden dip in form, Red Bull is believed to be in favor of retaining the Mexican for another year. With this, Perez continues to elude the fate that befell those before him at Red Bull. Guenther Steiner, however, questions the Milton-Keynes-based outfit’s decision of not giving another driver a chance ahead of him.
Red Bull has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy towards repeated underperformances, as seen in the past few seasons. Drivers like Daniil Kvyat, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly became victims of the same. And Steiner is baffled how Perez continues to be a Red Bull driver. On The Red Flags Podcast, the former Haas boss says,
“It’s one of those questions I ask myself sometimes. It’s like, why you don’t give another guy a chance, you know?”
There are several drivers on the market, as Steiner suggests. Former drivers Albon and Carlos Sainz (their academy graduate) could be up for grabs, but Red Bull continues to lean in favor of retaining Perez.
Guenther Steiner even makes a case for Yuki Tsunoda, who he feels is doing a “fantastic job” for V-CARB. Yet, somehow, he eludes the Red Bull radar.
At the same time, Steiner understands why Perez appears to be underperforming. The disparity in talent in the Red Bull lineup makes for a valid argument on the 59-year-old’s part.
Sergio Perez isn’t as bad as he looks, claims Guenther Steiner
While Sergio Perez often looks like he isn’t a good driver, Steiner insists that isn’t the case. The prowess of Max Verstappen makes his teammate look bad when, in fact, Perez is a decent driver according to Steiner.
Qualifying head-to-head
Albon is the only driver to ALWAYS have beaten his teammate in qualifying: 10-0 for him!
Mercedes and Alpine have had very close teammate battles in qualifying#Norris has qualified better than Piastri in all races but one!#F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/yTJGMXF10T
— Formula Data Analysis (@FDataAnalysis) July 14, 2023
The Italian engineer feels that the rest of the driver lineups are relatively much more closely matched. This makes them look much better than Perez actually is.
For instance, Lewis Hamilton and George Russell were two of the most evenly matched drivers in 2023. In the head-to-head stats, they tied 11-11 in Qualifying, despite the former leading significantly in the drivers’ standings. Thus, Steiner indirectly pointed out that Perez’s poor form is also a matter of appearances.
