This has been one of the better F1 seasons in recent memory, and also really drives home that the constructors championship is a true team sport. Without a good second driver (cough: Perez) there’s only so much a single great driver can do.
It works both way though, more equal team mates means your team mate takes wins off you. Charles has lost one race result to Carlos, Lewis one to George, and Lando has lost two to Oscar. Thats just the wins as well.
Sure the extra points from two wins for Lando isnt going to magically close the gap to Max at this point, but what if the situation was reversed and Max had been the one to lose a couple of wins to Checo early on in the season? Lando might have been within 20 points (ish) by this point.
It also means the teams primary focus is on the number one driver for development and strategy. Red Bull only made changes when Max complained and not when Checo complained and was clearly struggling more than normal.
I am not advocating teams having such a clear number one and two as at Red Bull, I personally cannot stand Micheal's Ferrari years because of this, but it does have clear benefits for the drivers championship.
Such a shame they're binning the ground effect formula so quickly but I do have high hopes for 2025 being an all timer
What a difference it could've been had Perez not bottled so many races, or if Max had a more competent teammate.
Or if Red Bull had built a driveable car
That probably would've only made a difference for Max, not so much for Perez.
They had a better car last season and Perez still had less than half the points of Max.
Also, Perez bottled most races thanks to his own errors, not really the car's fault.
GET. RID. OF. PEREZ.
He is going to cost redbull millions. Is it really fucking worth it??? Put in Tsunoda, fucking hell Lawson or Ricciardo would have done a better job.
His sponsorship money must be too important to ignore. I can't see any other reason to keep him around.
People are commenting that the red bull is undriveable (is this the right word?) and that is why perez is struggling. But if you have been watching the sessions (practice, qualifying and races) this year, one can clearly see that Red bull has been suffering with massive understeer while their rear end has been pretty stable. This is different to 2022 and 2023 where Red bull had a sharper front end and the rear was looser so ideally this balance characteristic should suit perez and be the opposite of the balance that max prefers. Yet somehow max is the one who has been much much faster and other than a lack of skill, I can find no explanation for perez's struggles. I think he has lost his edge in the last few years and frankly should be replaced.
Perez lacks the confidence to make a successful pass. Like he’s stuck in the midfield in almost every race. In the seasons before he pushed the other driver or himself off track way too many times. He is probably too scared to push the car to its limit this year.
He is probably too scared to push the car to its limit this year.
Isn't this true for every year. He is nowhere near max who is operating close to the limit of the car. The difference being that in the earlier seasons, the car was not suited to him while theoretically, this season's car should be better suited to him. Yet he has looked more off the pace than ever this year
