Sergio Perez arguably had the worst of his three seasons at Red Bull in 2023. The Mexican driver was at the receiving end of immense criticism due to his alarming performance gap to Max Verstappen. In addition, Perez also cost Red Bull a huge amount of money due to his frequent crashes across the season. This damage is worth over $3 million, thereby placing the 33-year-old third in the Destructors’ championship.
According to Formula Passion, Perez’s season was diametrically opposite to that of the Dutchman. The former Force India driver frequently crashed his RB19 and struggled in qualifying most of the time. F1technical.net posted a final update of how much worth of damage each driver has caused in 2023.
Perez stands third in this list with $3,224,000 worth of damages for Red Bull. Contrastingly, Verstappen is at the bottom of this list with only $345,000 worth of damages on his fault.
This is an alarming contrast and sums up Perez’s 2023 season. The Mexican had a massive dip in performance ever since he competed at the Miami GP in May.
Following this, Perez often finished outside the top five, miles behind his Dutch teammate. The races in Qatar, Japan, and Mexico were a nightmare for him, as he failed to finish and had multiple crashes and collisions during those weekends.
Eventually, his points tally also shows the huge deficit to the three-time champion. Perez finished with less than half of Verstappen‘s points despite taking P2 in the standings.
Can Sergio Perez save his seat at Red Bull?
Only two drivers were ahead of Sergio Perez in the Destructors’ championship: Logan Sargeant and Carlos Sainz. Sargeant, in his debut season, crashed multiple times and cost Williams a whopping $4,333,000 in damages.
Meanwhile, Sainz’s damages cost went up to $3,644,000. However, in Sainz’s case, one of his crashes in Las Vegas was due to a manhole cover. Thus, the Spaniard is not the one to blame for the same.
For Perez, things do seem tricky in terms of his F1 future. The six-time race winner has a set contract at Red Bull till the end of 2024. However, with his inconsistent and terrible run of form, there is a chance that Red Bull may decide to part ways with him sooner.
While team boss Christian Horner has backed Perez, the Mexican will need to perform better and bounce back from his 2023 woes. Else, the Milton Keynes team may decide to part ways with him.
Many drivers are vying for Perez’s seat in the paddock. Both AlphaTauri drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda hope to get to Red Bull by 2025. The former has clearly stated that returning and finishing his career at Red Bull would be like
“a fairytale” for him.
Meanwhile, Red Bull may also consider a move to rope in Lando Norris from McLaren. The Briton has been on the Austrian team’s radar for a while. However, Norris seems keen to stay at Woking.
