The Sergio Perez Problem

so Red Bull have a problem and it's Sergio Perez we're a third of the way through the 2024 Formula 1 season and while one Red Bull driver is up the front winning races and taking names the other is struggling badly to just finish on the podium while One driver has taken the lon share of Po position so far this year the other is being out qualified by Logan freaking Sergeant while One driver is extracting the absolute most out of a car that may not be as good as we initially thought it was the other just can't seem to cope and yet Sergio Perez will remain at Red Bull Racing for at least another year Beyond this perhaps even longer and that presents a dilemma but not necessarily for the reasons that you might be thinking of okay time to stop beating around the bush let's get down to the nitty-gritty [Music] here so a quick recap before we begin since we all seem to have selective memory in the sport by 2020 Red Bull's driver lineup was in disarray there was no question about how good Max must stappen was but everyone was questioning the status of the team's second driver Alex albon the spins the mistakes the being raced so hard moments every bit of chance was afforded to albon to improve his racecraft over the year but it just never came to much of anything now whether that was down to his inability to grasp the cast's handling characteristics or some kind of voodo Doll curse or whatever as the end of 2020 Drew n they knew they needed to provide Max with a suitable teammate in the event they may be able to take the fight to the Empire of Mercedes And as it so happens they found their answer [Music] Perez's run and the force India racing team Point stroll team in the latter half of 2020 was spellbinding genuinely amazing drives from a dude who just a couple of months ago was essentially sacked thanks to that most wonderful of things that social scientists call nepotism even if sir lelot did hit his annual 45 good races run the notion that czecho could be out of a drive for 2021 just seemed criminal everyone hated it everyone felt awful for him and then sakir happened after almost 10 years of trying to 10 years of being in midc cars that were barely worthy of the podiums that he scored them in he was finally at top the podium as a grand prix winner now I know I say I don't have favorites but I was and am a czecho fan and this was a moment that all of us czecho fans save it at the time his prospects were getting onto the grid for 2021 weren't all that great at the time but to get a win before the time was up and to do it in that fashion to come from last in the field to climb up and win the race like that at least we could be at peace with that if this really were to be the end of cheo's time in Formula 1 but then a couple of weeks later he was snapped up by Red Bull to replace the drowning albon he would live to fight another day in this Whimsical wand dorium known as Formula 1 but you know despite signing with a big dog team with a mass of am man of potential to bring czecho more wins and more successes he still brought with him a wealth of sponsors that included the backing of Carlos Slim one of the richest people in the world and someone who had backed him from the very start now if there's a sponsor that you would ever feel secure with it might might be him and surf shark bpn who is as you might have entertained by now the sponsor of this video hold on hold on stay here please I know y'all know what a VPN is I know most of us are partially educated but just quickly for those who don't know a VPN is a service that protects your information by encrypting all the data that you send through the internet thereby protecting said data and keeping any minuses from getting at it and as our parents always say always use protection on the internet we don't want our stuff being compromised and in an age where everyone is an introvert privacy is our most valued asset given the upper 1% has priced us out of everything else we love to just Kickback and forget our troubles with a nice dose of streaming but even that's a headache sometimes given they love to limit the content based on your location which honestly doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense to me or anyone but with surf shark you can change your location at least virtually and thus gain access to content otherwise not available in your region I mean it ain't quite teleportation but it is about as close as we're going to get right now sound good well secure your privacy with surf shark enter coupon code Josh reel for an extra 4 months free with your subscription so for round about a couple of bucks a month when all is said and done you are fully protected and with those 4 free months and a 30-day money back guarantee I have to ask what the bloody hell are you waiting for oh right that well okay the choice to put czecho into that second Red Bull seat paid dividends throughout 2021 multiple times the Mexican minister of defense was able to take the fight to Mercedes and held his Zone when it mattered no one really expected him to beat Max apart from maybe the delightful Papa Perez but the job he carried out merited his place within the team at least as much as can be expected of a firste driver but for 2022 it was expected to be a bit different given now he was well-versed in the team and was familiar with the equipment he himself saying that he would be much closer to Max that year and in the first few rounds this certainly proved to be the case he took pole position in jeda for example and won the illustrious Monaco Grand Prix the objective of being in effective driver for Red Bull was being fulfilled from czecho but as the season progressed he gradually began to fade away and despite the speed of the rb18 that year he still managed to lose second in the standings to charlot Clair who was driving a Ferrari that struggled to grasp the concept of staying alive when the next season started however it appeared that czecho may have turned a corner he won in jeda and then in Baku and for a while it looked like he might have been able to pose a genuine threat for the title or at least that's what the media was having us believe at the time it certainly didn't matter to too much to Red Ball to have both their drivers fighting each other given their opposition was so far behind them but after losing the Miami Grand Prix to Max that's when everything started to go downhill a myriad of mistakes tainted his championship hopes which included crashing the car getting knocked out early in qualifying or whatever by Hungary he had not been in Q3 for five consecutive Grand Prix and he celebrated this Milestone by slamming his current to the barrier within the first 10 minutes of practice and it really didn't help that Daniel Ricardo was being drafted back into a fulltime F1 one seat over at alpat to as a sort of try out to see if he still had some piss and vinegar in them Aussie veins it never got much better as the season went on and was being lusted for his poor performances while other drivers and the Red Bull family were doing bits I mean Ricardo out qualified czecho at czecho home race that kind of said everything at the time Red Bull went on public records saying that czecho desperately needed to find his form Le he wants a one-way ticket to the glue factory yet somehow Cho managed to hang on to second place in the Championship that year an indication of just how insane that rb19 was but that did beg the question what happens when that Advantage starts to go away nine rounds into the 2024 season it's safe to say that czecho year thus far has been not great to put it nicely initially it didn't look to be too bad the results were kind of average but he was working as an effective backup man for Max grabbing podiums and four out of the first five races but as struggles to move up the field in Melbourne were kind of disconcerting and then that's when the real problems started to surface he almost obliterated Max at the first Corner in Miami and lost out to both Ferraris afterwards at em he was Miles off Max's pace and ended up finishing almost a minute behind him in the race in eighth place with a crash in final practice and mistakes blighting his race this was all starting to Trend in a very concerning pattern in Monaco he suffered the indignity of being knocked out in q1 and being out qualified by Logan Sergeant that's going to hurt and then his race ended after only a few hundred yards thanks to Kevin mag throwing him into the barriers but again we got to ask why was he even there in the first place at the back of the Grid in a Red Bull I mean I'll believe AP pooll beer in Arlington Texas but this this this is just taking the piss then we reached Canada and czecho finally hit upon a run of consistency consistently getting knocked out in q1 again being out qualified by Logan sergeant again he made little progress in the race even being passed by the Alpine of estan okan before dimly deciding to he his cut into the barrier backwards and convert his rb20 into a formula forward and yet despite this run of wretched results and despite Red Bull admitting that he needs to regain the form that he's obviously lost he has been given a contract extension for at least another year potentially two depending upon which journalists have better contacts now I've got to ask why the heck would they off for this even with those few races that he won since joining the team other Red Bull drivers have been fired for better results in a far shorter time span so why is czecho getting a free pass here I mean it's almost as if there's external factors at play here almost as if he's bringing in a boatload of cash or something oh oh I get it it is a bit hard to ignore just how much money czecho brings to the brand whether it be through personal sponsors or the obscene amount of merch and product currently being sold in Mexico it may not be the sole reason why they'd resign him but that influx of cash should be really hard to pass up for anyone even a team as big as Red Bull are and that's not necessarily a slight of them you got to get a hit however you can in the sport that's why the honey badger is still around despite displaying the driving attitude this year obious SLO in a V of glue actually on that note what about the other drivers in the Red Bull family why would they not up for consideration we know just how good Yuki Coda has been he's more than deserved at least consideration for the seat but as far as we can work out he's not being considered for it it's almost as if Red Bull look at him as if to say wow you earn well you look after yourself you have no mortgage your future is settled you donate to the PO oh no wait sorry you're 411 so on the performance front it doesn't make a look sense at the same time going up against Max ven as a teammate is a whole different kettle of fish we have seen that from other drivers in the past but with all du respect because I like him I mean who doesn't I definitely don't see Yuki being any different to albon to gazley or czecho in this regard what's more with Yuki being backed heavily by Honda there may be alternative plans for him that lay Beyond Red Bull potentially Daniel Ricardo meanwhile can definitely go to war in the Battle of psychological combat but he ain't the same dog that he was from circa 2014 to 2018 he'd like to say that he is but my brother in Christ one or two good races a year doesn't make you a commodity it makes you L stroll and yeah you've got the likes of Liam Lawson and Isaac haar there drivers who have definitely got what it takes for Formula 1 or if you want to go beyond the Realms of the Red Bull program you could learn a top driver away from a rival to fill the void but we do have to remind ourselves that they have done that before and that's why we're here today after Ricardo left the team at the end of 2018 Pierre GLE was drafted in after a very impressive stunt at Tor Roso everyone was hyped for him but after only half a season his campaign crashed and burned into the ground he was demoted back to toror Roso and in his place came another Red Bull Junior in the form of Alex elbon and no it wasn't enough time and was there perhaps influence given Red Bull's Thailand Origins I mean hey look anything is possible but either way despite some early promise albon's campaign also fell apart while Red Bull desperately attempted to bring his form back into line and It ultimately led us to where we are today where we're questioning why the hell rib bull are hanging on to czecho ignoring the fact that at the time of elbon struggles everyone was practically crying out for the racing Point driver to be hired by Red Bull by virtue of his amazing 2020 season to say that he did not deserve his promotion is asinine to try and diminish how good as year was is equally as foolish we as a community are so freaking fickle and we can't seem to make our minds up just like in Yuki coda's debut season first race in he's the greatest rookie in years four or five races later he's all of a sudden been promoted too early to Formula 1 what is it ladies and Gentlemen let's pick our poison here but with Sergio Perez we are in year four of the experiment and the results are only getting worse this shouldn't be happening now there's a legitimate cause for calling his place into question it almost seems as if he's a newer version of Gian Carlo fala amazing in mid cars and mid in amazing cars there's also another aspect of this it is clear that czecho will never be able to fight Max for the title as good as czecho is and it may not end up being entirely up to him he's not going to hound and take points off a Max like some of the other driver lineups would but that's not necessarily a bad thing for Red Bull to have a distinct number one and number two driver running the team like a pure dictatorship can yield a lot of good results Alla Ferrari in the early 2000s making your star driver comfortable in this regard knowing he'll be ped like a pharaoh could be a good thing but there is another side to that coin when the competition catches up and it will happen if czecho continues to drown like Tommy versetti will that cost them the constructor's championship sh and potentially the driv one too will that rare Gunner you banked on not be there when Max needs it most exactly how much do you risk compromising the championship because you fall back on what you know and feel safe with rather than making tough calls in anticipation for what lies [Music] ahead having said that if czecho isn't the guy for the job who is and don't just say anyone because that's not a proper answer who could cope with a car that may handle like a raccoon on angel dust who is on Max's level that cope with the pressure challenge him for the title and in the process not throw each other off the road the answer may not be as easy as some of y'all think and even if red ball could find that driver is that really what the team wants yeah sure we fans want closer competition but keeping the status quo a star driver backed up by a solid second driver is selfishly more preferable for them now czecho can be that second driver that Reed bull wants he has shown that before but it's not happening often enough the mistakes and the pace discrepancy is coming at a time where they really don't need need it and it's not a new thing either Red Bull have a problem and it's Sergio Perez and I don't know if they can fix it Max's performances are masking the fact that the field is drawing closer and closer and with the new regulations coming in 2026 it's a complete unknown if Red Bull will be the PowerHouse that they've been these last few years they are going to need to make sure that their driver lineup is the right one heading into that era but truth be told they haven't really had that for years and changing czecho could be a complete 50-50 call for Red Bull it really is a case of damned if you do damned if you don't or maybe not for I think I know a driver that would be the answer to all of Red Bull's prayers [Music] [Music]

Channel: Josh Revell

Views: 159,959

Keywords: f1, formula 1, perez, sergio perez, checo, checo perez, checo f1, checo red bull, checo red bull contract, sergio perez red bull contract

Id: 4GlJRMlEX6E

Length: 14min 39sec (879 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024