The pressure on Sergio Perez for 2024

 

A disappointed Perez after getting knocked out of Q1 at the 2023 Spanish Grand Prix.

  Sergio "Checo" Perez is one of the most experienced drivers on the current F1 grid. Entering in 261 grand prix weekend starting from the 2011 Australian Grand Prix and was one of F1's most solid in the 2010s. Throughout his long career, Checo has amassed 6 wins, 35 podiums and 3 pole positions.

  In the 2010s, Sergio often found himself sitting in a podium position with a car that did not belong there. Standout performances where he did such a thing include Bahrain 2014, Russia 2015 and Azerbaijan 2016. 

Sergio Perez after finishing 3rd at the 2015 Russian Grand Prix for Force India.

  Despite this, he never got a chance to display his talent in a front running team, with his only opportunity coming in the form of McLaren in 2013, but by then the Woking team was heading towards a downward spiral.

  In his 10th year in the game, Checo finally found himself in a position to race for a top team, with Red Bull's Alex Albon failing to meet expectations and the Mexican having his best season to date, with the highlight being the last to first performance under the floodlights of Sakhir, it was a no brainer that the Austrian team would go for someone of Checo's caliber and experience.

  His Red Bull career started off quite solidly, getting used to a top car for the first time in his career and clocking in solid 4th place finishes in the opening rounds, even a last to fifth in his debut for the Bulls in Bahrain, his shining moment came when he picked up the pieces left by Max Verstappen's misfortune of a tyre blowout and Lewis Hamilton's uncharacteristic mistake in Azerbaijan to win on the streets that he dearly loves.

Perez after winning his first of 5 races for Red Bull at the 2021 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

  The rest of the season would not be as smooth sailing however, with the Mexican spinning out of the Sprint in Britain to then finish a disastrous 16th place, and then crashing before the race had even started in Spa.

  Qualifying would also start to show as one of his weak points, with him getting knocked out of Q1 in Zandvoort and an early exit out of Q2 in Qatar. All while team-mate Max Verstappen was at the front locking horns with Lewis Hamilton in one of F1's most thrilling championship battles the sport had witnessed.

  The following two years would show the same pattern, with Checo having a strong start to the season and looking to potentially challenge his team-mate Max Verstappen for the championship. With 2022 starting off with a pole in Jeddah and win in Monaco, while 2023 saw something similar with a win in Jeddah and Baku.

Perez on the podium after winning the 2023 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

  However, those early parts of the season would wind up as something Checo would want to go back to once he got to the mid part of the season, with the 33 year-old Mexican always seeing the door early in qualifying, failing to reach the final showdown of qualifying nine times in 2023, with two of them involving him starting from dead last and even when he reached Q3, he would only start in the top 3 five times all while his Dutch team-mate did so 19 times.

  Checo's races would be less disastrous, but still unacceptable considering that the RB19 was (statistically) the most dominant car in Formula 1 in the sport's 73 year history. After the first 5 races, Checo only found himself stepping onto the podium a shocking five times. When his team-mate on the other side of the garage was winning races like making a cup of coffee in the morning.

  Messy performances like Singapore and Japan further proved that the pressure could be getting to Sergio, causing collisions with the Williams of Alex Albon and the Haas of Kevin Magnussen. Both cars that he should arguably not be racing for position.

Perez colliding with the Haas of Magnussen after a failed divebomb into the hairpin at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix.

  Of course, to beat Max Verstappen is a tough ask for any driver on the grid, but if you are in equal machinery, you should at least comfortably be in 2nd or at least close to him in qualifying and the races, to back him up in case the other teams do improve the performance of their cars and are in the position to win.

  Red Bull have made the bold choice to retain Checo for 2024. It is a seat that he will be fighting for as the threat of Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson is constantly looming around the Mexican's back. If he drops another underwhelming season like 2023, it is without a doubt that the Red Bull hierarchy would immediately send him to the junior team, or even out of the sport in general, as they have done to Perez's predecessor, Alex Albon.

  That does not go without saying that Checo can still retain his drive for the Milton Keynes based team in 2025. All Red Bull would want from the Mexican in his 14th year of F1 is to finish second in the championship minimally and always be there to support Verstappen in case another team like McLaren or Ferrari does suddenly burst through the ranks and can challenge Red Bull for consistent victories, or even a world championship. A similar role that Finnish driver Valtteri Bottas has done at Mercedes from 2017 to 2021.

An emotional Checo soaks in his first Grand Prix victory after 190 race starts.

  Moreover, Checo has shown that he is able to deliver under high pressure situations, with a prime example being in 2020, when he was prematurely left without a drive for 2021 and went on to have the best season of his F1 career to date.

  2024 is a make or break season for Checo, as fans, teams or even drivers alike will definitely be keeping a close eye on his performances this season to see if Christian Horner and Helmut Marko would still require his services for the near future, so he would definitely be one of the most interesting drivers to monitor in this upcoming season.