2020 F1 driver rankings #7: Sergio Perez

2020 F1 season review

Posted on

| Written by

There was unquestionably a feel-good, almost fairytale quality to the story of Sergio Perez’s 2020 campaign.

It looked like Perez’s F1 career was over when Racing Point announced they would cut short his three-year deal to drive for them by two years. The decision was in no way a fair reflection on his performance for in 2020 or in his previous six campaigns for the team, in which he was almost invariably the team’s top scoring driver.

Finally, after spending much of the year wondering if he had an F1 future at all, Perez scored his first win in astonishing circumstances, and was rewarded soon after with a chance to join no less a team than Red Bull for the 2021 F1 season.

It came as a surprise to some that Red Bull took so long over their decision to replace the under-performing Alexander Albon with Perez. While the Racing Point driver undoubtedly had a better season, it was also one of missed opportunities, as he admitted.

Although he had a fair amount of misfortune, he suffered at his own hand on occasions as well. A hasty tangle with Albon in the Styrian Grand Prix broke his front wing, costing him a potential fourth place.

Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Imola, 2020
A tactical error cost Perez a podium at Imola
From then on the missed points piled up. A poor start in Hungary left him seventh, and he missed the next two races after catching Covid-19. He was immediately back on it in Spain, finishing fourth on the road, but relegated behind team mate Lance Stroll by a five-second time penalty for ignoring blue flags.

The next two races yielded just a point each, though on both occasions he was out of luck with his strategy – the timing of the race suspension at Monza, and a tactical error by Racing Point at Spa, who kept him on a set of soft tyres when the Safety Car was deployed early in the race.

This faltering start to the season left Perez outside the top 10 despite having the third-quickest car at his disposal. He put that right in the second half of the championship and ended the year fourth in the standings, with only the Mercedes drivers and future team mate Max Verstappen ahead of him.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

Top-five finishes at Mugello, Sochi and the Nurburgring propelled Perez up the standings, though a podium finish continued to elude a driver who had seldom let such opportunities slip in previous years. He recovered to seventh at Algarve after Verstappen knocked him into a spin on the first lap, and was left to ponder another doubtful Racing Point strategy call at Imola, where the team brought him in for an extra pit stop during a late Safety Car period, potentially costing him a rostrum finish.

While Stroll caught the eye at Istanbul by claiming pole position and leading, Perez was the more impressive of Racing Point’s two drivers that weekend. It was Perez who sussed the time was right for intermediate tyres in qualifying, and he would surely have taken pole had Antonio Giovinazzi not blundered into his path. While Stroll eventually dropped out of contention, apparently with front wing damage, Perez finally delivered his first podium finish of the season.

Sergio Perez

Beat team mate in qualifying11/15
Beat team mate in race5/9
Races finished14/15
Laps spent ahead of team mate327/693
Qualifying margin-0.33s
Points125

This was one of few occasions all season that Stroll out-qualified Perez. But while the latter usually came out on top, qualifying remains one of the less strong areas of his game. There were times he qualified some way below Racing Point’s apparent potential. He also lost more places than anyone at the start on average, though those first-lap incidents in the Portuguese and Sakhir rounds skew this metric.

Going into the final three races of the year Perez reflected he’d had a season of missed opportunities. So it continued, as power unit failures struck as he neared another podium finish in the Bahrain Grand Prix, and again in Abu Dhabi.

But in between the two he conjured up the season’s most sensational win, recovering from being knocked into a spin on the first lap to climb through the field and profit from the Mercedes drivers’ misfortunes. Perez’s fate was still unknown at the time, but after a season like this, it would have been an injustice to see him sidelined for 2021.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2020 F1 season review

Browse all 2020 F1 season review articles

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

69 comments on “2020 F1 driver rankings #7: Sergio Perez”

  1. So he spent more laps behind Stroll than ahead of him. Interesting. I still think he should be rated higher (definitely ahead of Sainz, and probably Leclerc and Gasly too, while I thought he was pretty much equal with Ricciardo), but it’s hard to do an analysis of his season compared to any of those drivers, because they are all in different cars.

    1. These were my ratings for them:
      Perez – 7.933
      Ricciardo – 7.882
      Gasly – 7.706
      Leclerc – 7.647
      Sainz – 7.529
      Norris – 7.471
      So there it was very close and I don’t mind Perez being down in seventh. I do think Sainz and Norris are a bit too far apart now (unless Keith’s rankings are also extremely close between this group, but Russell and Bottas are rated slightly higher).

      1. What rating did you give Stroll? And Russell/Latifi?
        @f1frog

        1. 1. Lewis Hamilton – 8.750
          2. Max Verstappen – 8.471
          3. Sergio Perez – 7.933
          4. Daniel Ricciardo – 7.882
          5. Pierre Gasly – 7.706
          6. Charles Leclerc – 7.647
          7. Carlos Sainz – 7.529
          8. Lando Norris – 7.471
          9. George Russell – 7.235
          10. Valtteri Bottas – 7.059
          11. Kimi Raikkonen – 6.941
          12. Daniil Kvyat – 6.647
          13. Esteban Ocon – 6.529
          14. Antonio Giovinazzi – 6.471
          15. Kevin Magnussen – 6.412
          16. Romain Grosjean – 6.267
          17. Lance Stroll – 6.250
          18. Alexander Albon – 5.765
          19. Nicholas Latifi – 5.765
          20. Sebastian Vettel – 5.588

          1. Thanks @f1frog.
            Sticking with the protagonist of this article, I’m not sure how his full season got him more than 3x closer to Verstappen than to Stroll. Especially since he was equal to (or beaten by) Stroll during the early parts of 2020, and he never got to the level of Verstappen.

            Maybe you rated Stroll with negative scores during his second part of the season (except Turkey) ;)

          2. From Sochi to Abu Dhabi, Perez actually had the highest rating of anyone.
            Perez’s scores were:
            7,8,6,n/a,n/a,8,6,8,6,9,9,9,8,9,9,10,7
            And Stroll’s scores were:
            6,6,9,5,7,8,6,6,8,6,n/a,4,4,8,6,7,6

          3. Totally agree with you.

    2. Anyone who watched the whole season knows that isn’t representative of their time together. Perez destroyed stroll was consistently faster in qualy and races

      1. Perez destroyed stroll was consistently faster in qualy and races

        The season was longer than the last 3 races.
        ‘Destroyed’ is not the appropriate word if objectively assessing all 17 races (and I’m not thinking ‘annihilated’/’obliterated’ either).

        1. There’s always “demolished”! Was a joke ofc, I agree none of these words apply.

  2. Makes sense IMO:
    Gasly and Sainz were more consistently good throughout the season;
    Leclerc had his ups and downs as well, but overall stronger;
    Ricciardo remained at a high level throughout 2020;
    And none of the above came close to Hamilton or Verstappen.

    1. Agree with all your points.
      I’d rate Gasly and Sainz as consistently strong performers. In fact, I’d even throw Norris in that group along with Russell.

      Leclerc had ups and downs… some incredible highs like the podium in Austria and Britain, but serious lows like Styria and Monza.

      Ricciardo was probably the most consistently strong midfield performer in 2020, just notching slightly higher than the group of Gasly and Sainz overall.

      It was hard to say where Perez fits in with all of them. In the first half of the season he wasn’t as good as Gasly, Sainz, Norris, Leclerc or even Ricciardo. In the second half of the season, he was probably better than all of them. The only thing I ask myself is whether any of the other midfield drivers would have scored more points throughout the season if they had the Pink Mercedes… and I think Gasly, Sainz, Leclerc and Ricciardo would. It’s questionably whether Norris and Russell would have. I’d rate them as below –

      #9 Russell
      #8 Norris
      #7 Perez
      #6 Leclerc
      #5 Gasly
      #4 Sainz
      #3 Ricciardo

  3. I think placing Perez at 7th is really low for the season the Mexican had.

    He had one of the biggest qualifying advantages over his teammate, had some brilliant drives throughout the season, lost many great results due to some extremely questionable calls by Racing Point and he finally became a race winner

    I personally ranked him at top of my list of 2020, but even if this is considered too high, I can’t see how he could be left out of the top 5.

    1. I still think too many don’t conciser that the first half of the season really wasn’t very impressive from Perez. Even 10 races into the season (russia), Stroll was still ahead at this point and I can’t say their luck was anything else but even. Stroll 3 DNFs – Perez 2 missed races and terrible luck in Italy. It must have taken quite something from Stroll or a poor first half from Perez (or something between) for Stroll to still be ahead past the half season mark. So because of this, I think it is perfectly fair for Perez not to be ranked any higher than he is. Especially as Stroll is already a long long way behind him when it was only in the last 7 races or so that Stroll noticeable looked a lot worse – and not even in all of them. With Stroll rated 15th, 7th for perez in my view is perfectly accurate given Stroll had more laps ahead.

    2. Perez also had an extremely poor strategy at Spa, didn’t have the significant upgrades at Mugello and didn’t manage to maximize his results at Austria and Styria.

      You could say that he didn’t perform at Styria,when he caused some damage to his front wing but other than that,he was on different pace level than Stroll (with the exception of Hungary when Stroll beat him fair and square).

      1. @miltosgreekfan if we look at the gap between Stroll and Perez in race trim in some of those races in the first half of the season:
        – The Austrian GP saw Stroll retire early on – he probably would have finished behind, but how far is hard to tell,
        – The Styrian GP saw Perez pull out a lead of about 15 seconds before his damaged front wing – that said, Stroll probably wasn’t able to show his maximum pace because he was stuck behind Ricciardo for most of the race,
        – The Hungarian GP saw Stroll finish about 30 seconds ahead of Perez,
        – The Spanish GP saw Perez finish about 2.3s ahead of Stroll, although his time penalty meant he was classified behind him,
        – Belgium saw Perez eventually finish 0.5s behind Stroll after the botched pit strategy – though, given how the times of some other drivers worsened in the closing laps, it was maybe not so bad of a strategy after all,
        – In Italy, before the interruption in the middle of the race, Perez was about 5.7s ahead of Stroll, though both Stroll and Perez were stuck in the same queue of cars building up behind Norris.

        The data is somewhat messy, but it does suggest that Stroll probably was closer to Perez in the first half of the season and that Perez’s form was a bit weak when compared to the latter half of this season.

        1. Stroll definitely looked and was better at the early stages overall, but Perez didn’t lack pace on the other hand. For instance,the way he climbed up the order in Styria was as impressive as his Bahrain outer comeback.
          I can’t help but think that the whole contact situation affected Perez slightly and when the news came out,he was able to focus more on his driving

    3. Top ! Ridiculous . Couldn’t be bothered to read the rest. Get a grip man / boy

      1. Or woman / girl?

  4. Jelle van der Meer (@)
    28th January 2021, 12:26

    How does someone get placed 7th who he finishes 4th (despite missing 2 races and 2 more engine failures) in the championship while driving the 3rd or 4th best car of the field???

    Perez certainly deserved a top 5 ranking

    1. He explains above. If you just want them in championship order read the WDC table. This is a subjective view based on car, consistency, team mate performance as well as points haul. I thought this was fairly well understood.

    2. Well, Nico Rosberg was placed 4th on this site in 2016, and even as low as 5th on other websites (Autosport) – despite winning the championship and suffering one only one DNF that year – caused by his actions toward his teammate in Spain.

  5. Go Checo, I’m rooting for you!

  6. Leclerc with 3 race ending mistakes (styrian, monza, sahkir) including crashing out his teammate being higher rated that perez is not quite right for me.

    1. Agreed, Lec always has some hype. Still very error prone compared with his other generation drivers.
      The very bad season VET endured seems to help LEC.

      1. I think back to Verstappen at the beginning of 2018 and Vettel’s early days as well, even great drivers can go through a phase where they test the limits and make mistakes. Leclerc has balanced out the mistakes with some great drives and he’ll learn from the experience.

    2. @jesperfey13
      IMO the crash at Monza was just a matter of time. The car looked very twitchy at the rear, probably because Ferrari took as much downforce away as they could, in order to be somewhat competitive on the straights.
      It looked seriously difficult to drive, which should be taken into consideration when judging drivers’ mistakes.
      I agree about Styria and Sakhir though, as those were pure blackouts, which shouldn’t happen to a driver of Leclerc’s caliber.

      1. Yea agreed. The cars was very sketchy during that weekend. By the looks of it at least.

  7. I’d have put him ahead of Gasly and perhaps Ricciardo, but it’s very close. He was perhaps the best performer over the last handful of races, but had some rather anonymous weekends earlier on in season. Often, it must be said, totally screwed by RP’s strategy calls.

  8. ‘Beat teammate in qualifying 11/15…’
    Styria, Hungary, Turkey and…where else? Can’t seem to recall. Mugello shouldn’t count, he outqualified Stroll but started behind due to a 1 place penalty.

    1. The hulk at the nurburgring

      1. Perez outqualified Hulk there. Still can’t seem to find the fourth race where Perez got outqualified.

    2. In abu dhabi
      Perez had a penalty to start at the back so didn’t run in q2

      1. Ahh right! I think I preferred to think that the season ended in Sakhir and Abu Dhabi never happened :D

  9. Let me start this by saying that I am a Perez supporter.

    For me this is an interesting observation: ‘There were times he qualified some way below Racing Point’s apparent potential.’

    I.e. Was the Racing Point a seriously quick car that could have done a lot more at the hands of, say, Hamilton or Verstappen?

    If the observation is right, and looking ahead to next year, that would not bode well for keeping up with Max. And it also wouldn’t reflect at all well on Stroll, given the qualifying margin to Perez in 2020.

    1. @alloythere Yes I think that’s what the author was getting at. Perez is not renowned for being a great qualifier so it’s not unreasonable to assume one of the quicker qualifiers would have been able to put the car quite a bit further up the grid, especially since the gaps from P4 to around P12 were quite small this season. And yes if that is true then the 0.33 seconds average gap to Stroll is not good news for him since that would probably put Stroll half a second or more behind the top qualifiers. But this is all subjective, and others might assume Perez’s performance was fairly representative of what the car was capable of for any driver.

      1. It is entirely subjective, I agree.

        One interesting thing to see, however, will be how Stroll stacks up against Vettel.

        1. We’ll get some pretty good comparisons all round with this season’s shuffle – would have been (1/200 might still be) even more informative with a Mercedes change.

        2. Interesting yes, in both cases, I think perez won’t do that badly against verstappen, think within 3 tenths on average is reasonable in qualifying, while with vettel I don’t know, when we’re looking at potential he’s more specialized in qualifying against stroll, and I think peak vettel would destroy him, but vettel might as well be a raikkonen, a driver who starts declining after like 6 years in f1, in which case if you take the 2020 season he wouldn’t be able to keep up with stroll, he wasn’t even good in qualifying in that case, and stroll is a better racer than qualifier.

  10. Good spot, but crystal ball predicts a lot of IFs in his position in future rankings.
    IF he settles for wingman role
    IF RedBull can secure an engine
    IF RedBull can secure Verstappen
    Then he’ll get a contract extension and probably reach a spot behind the fabulous 4 (VER, LEC, HAM, RIC). ALO and NOR still blurred in CrystalVision.

    1. the fabulous 4 (VER, LEC, HAM, RIC). ALO and NOR still blurred in CrystalVision.

      The blurred part if quite interesting.
      I agree that Norris is ahead of Sainz based on potential/talent; although Sainz did win the fight in 2020.
      Not sure though if Norris or Russell will be the next big thing from the former EU. Norris had it in 2020 IMO, but Russell is still an F2 champion, and only had 1 outing in a proper car so far.

  11. Interesting that the ‘housewives favourite’s’ season falls apart a little under scrutiny. If you just read the comments over the last few weeks you would think he won the WDC and maybe Bottas came last. He certainly outperforms the car as many times as he underperforms but being in Racing Point is not high profile and he tends to get noticed only when he flies above the radar. Good for him and the timing of his win was impeccable but he wont get anywhere near Max and I dont know where that leaves his many fans on here. Quietly moving on hopefully

  12. Well it seemed as if in the beginning of the season it was very much Stroll’s team and an exit strategy for SP was in effect.

    Perez somehow worked his magic and here we are. The numbers never tell the whole story but at least someone in RedBull was watching.

  13. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    28th January 2021, 13:50

    Ranking Perez, Gasly, Sainz, Leclerc, and Ricciardo is not easy. You can easily put Checo in P3 and it’s as convincing as P7, if not more.

    In fact, Perez in P3 is more convincing than Sainz, Gasly. and Leclerc in P3.

    Using that method, he belongs in P3-P4. I would actually split P3-P4 with Ricciardo.

  14. Out of the top 10 for half the season, 4th by the end – averaging out to 7th is pretty fair, imo…

  15. Agreed on this. The second half of the year was perhaps comparable to Ricciardo and better than Leclerc’s, but the first half was substandard for Perez.

  16. petebaldwin (@)
    28th January 2021, 15:43

    He showed what he’s capable of when he’s “on it” but he also showed what he’s capable of when he’s not. I think 7th is fair – he did well this year but against Stroll, he really should have won more comfortably IMO to be discussed as a top 5 driver in the rankings.

    Moving from competing with one of the weaker drivers on the grid to one of (some would say the) fastest is certainly going to leave him no room to hide. I don’t believe Albon or Gasley are slow and they got obliterated by Max. The coming season will tell us how fast Perez really is.

    Regarding the rankings though, I think we have to accept that whilst there may be several positions between some drivers, that doesn’t tell the full story. There is a bigger gap between 7th and 8th than there is between 7th and 4th…

    1. I DO believe albon and gasly are slow, or better yet, I believe they’re not able to adapt to a top car, remember fisichella and frentzen? All good drivers these 4 on the midfield, I agree, but give them a top car and they come “last”.

      As for perez vs verstappen, IMO, take the qualifying gap between perez and stroll this year and turn it around, that’s how it could go: verstappen > 3 tenths to perez > 3 tenths to stroll.

  17. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    28th January 2021, 16:13

    I think there are certain factors we need to consider as we rank Perez.

    1. He is competing in a team that is owned by his teammate’s father. That’s uncharted territory because his performance could be below average (and they’d love that) but it also can’t be too far above average, otherwise you risk shooting yourself in the foot. You want to be fast but not too fast and that’s the first time a driver has had this problem in F1.
    2. He had the Covid incident which cost him 2 races.
    3 He was very unfortunate at the end of the season.

    I could even sense the tension in Ottmar Szafnauer’s voice when asked for comments about Perez. He was genuinely excited but had to withhold his enthusiasm as there was an obvious conflict of interest between team ownership and the team’s best interests and he had to walk a very fine line. The same goes for Checo who realized that he had to moderate his own performances to align with his and the team’s interests.

  18. I’m glad Sergio did get a contract, and to get get one driving for Red Bull Racing is fantastic.

  19. Paul Rodriguez
    28th January 2021, 16:59

    Lovely euro-centric F1, nothing to do about it…

    1. Well yes, but actually no. Is it only me, or do Perez fans increasingly become similar to the Kubica mob?

      1. Max and Hulk fans are far worse.

  20. # 7 ???, …LOL

    It doesn’t surprise me, Pérez has never been a pilot like Keith’s sympathy, every mistake, every little mistake is amplified,… every hit, years of perseverance and good performances is minimized.

    This 2020 season Pérez achieved a solid # 4 in the championship, despite Covid, bad calls to the pits, bad team strategies, late updates on his car, engines that break, all that and not counting that much of the season with rumors of his departure from the team, Pérez seeing all this by the press, finally confirming his departure, Checo dealt with all that, and despite all that Pérez achieved very solid performances, podiums and a victory, … of course, all that It does not count, if Pérez had any success, it was because others failed.

    Despite all of this, Perez achieved a solid # 4 in the championship, with outstanding performances, and yet Perez only appears to be closer to midfield in Keith’s ratings than in the Top Drivers.

    # 7? My perception is very different, but it seems that many specialists from the specialized press, former pilots, senior managers, we are all wrong, because we have rated Pérez’s performances too high,… here my serious question, why Would Red Bull hire such a mediocre pilot?

    If Pérez has a good season next year, it will not be because of his good driving qualities, it will be because the car is good, nothing more. If Pérez has a bad season… I told you, Checo is a mediocre driver.

    Pérez, have you ever played football?

    1. Spot on comment! #7 is ridiculous!

    2. Red bull will also be basing on Perez’s past. this was probably not his best season. Perez was on;y very good this year in the 2nd half of the season on a regular basis. At the start, despite outqualifying stroll almost all the time, stroll sometimes did outlaunch him. And given Stroll spent more laps ahead and he’s rated 15th, I don’t think 7th is unreasonable. He had a mixed season. Way too many base it on his very good 2nd half because it is more recent.

      the same can be said about Bottas by many; his 2nd half of seasons are often worse and change people’s views after the season. Bottas arguably had his best half of any season early on in 2018 but people tend to remember it more for his poor 2nd half. had it been the other way round, people likely won’t remember it as such a bad season.

      Simply put, Perez was extremely good in several of the races this year. pretty good in some others, nothing special in quite a lot and poor in one or two. I don’t think he’s been good enough to be a top 5 driver this year which many seem to think.

      1. Ben, I think Pérez had a very good season and I think he should be better qualified, but the mix of numbers and perception give different results according to the perception of each person, in mine Pérez is better classified.

        I’m only going to touch on two points:

        1.- the first part of the season was plagued with mistakes and bad strategies by the team, the calls to the pits were terrible in more than one race, at least two podiums were lost, one at the beginning of the season and another in the middle of the season, that is not analyzed, only Checo had a bad first half, like that, without analyzing.
        Also at the end of the season he lost a podium and a broken engine that did not let him advance, that would have added many more points and the # 4 in the championship would be even more solid.

        In Turkey, Checo lost pole position due to traffic, Checo had a better pace than Lance.

        If all this is not analyzed and we only say that the “pink Mercedes” was very good, of course, Pérez is a half table player

        2.- I have said it on previous occasions, Lance is as bad a driver as his father is so rich, that is Lance’s worst defect, that terrible Lace defect clouds the vision of even the best editor of the best F1 page .

        I sincerely believe that Lance is a good driver, he is not as bad as it is said here, they judge him worse than he really is, I think he is a good driver and deserves as much as any current pilot his seat, on my list Stroll is a lot Best rated.

        I give you some information about Lance, which other pilots of his generation still do not have and Lance does:
        .- Second youngest driver in F1 history to get a podium, only Max is younger.
        .- He is the youngest driver in all of F1 history to get on the podium in his debut season.
        .-Lance already has a Ploe Position, others of his generation do not.
        .- He has 3 podiums in his history, only below Max and Charles, the rest of his generation do not.

        Actually, Lance is a good pilot, they despise him here, because being so, so rich, doesn’t help for certain things, it clouds the view of even the best editors, it’s a shame.

    3. Agree with you @luis. Given the stuff he had to deal with this season he preformed very well.
      Let’s see what he can do next season…

    4. @luis agree with most. 7th is far from it.

  21. the Sakhir win almost slipped away, if his dad is to be believed.

    he said in an interview that the car developed a hydraulic leak while in parc ferme, and it was only noticed when the team’s mechanics came to pick it up.

    the same issue appeared again in Abu Dhabi.

    1. Why wouldn’t be believed? Do you have information to the contrary? Politics in sports gets tiring.

  22. Learn from f1 frog’s assessment, dear writer. I know this is subjective but “c’mon, maan!” :D :D Can’t help but laugh at your ranking.

  23. Easily a top 3. With Max & Ric

  24. Not really suprised Perez is Underrated. For me absolutely top 4. Some claim have an average/poor first half. Well of course he missed 2 races for covid, and have 3 races with very poor strategy. But in general very consistent, dependable, the second best driver in the second half.

  25. Should be ranked behind Max.

    More consistent season than Daniel, Leclerc, and others.
    He even got worse machinery than Stroll at times.

    7 is too ardown the list.

  26. This ranking only proves the disdain always shown by Mr. Collantine towards Sergio for reasons unknown.
    How else can it be described when a driver pushes head and shoulders above his weight, consistently in all his seasons in F1, especially this one in a shorter season when, despite missing two races through illness, despite strategic errors of his team which cost him podiums (Italy, Imola), despite two mechanical retirements (Bahrain, where he lost another podium, and Abu Dhabi), he still won a race and finished a career-best fourth in the championship?
    Without all that, he would have been nipping at the heels of his new teammate, Max Verstappen…
    His real ranking is #3.

  27. Also feel he is rated too low…
    Should be rated 11/14 beat team mate in qualifying – strategic decisons not to run in Q2 should not get a win for your team mate but should be excluded – Perez was faster in Q1 IIRC.
    0.33 ahead of team mate but a bad qualifier?
    Car set up more toward race partly explains comments like “did not always get the best from the car in qualifying”
    Forced to run without new parts on may occasions – estimated worth 2 to 3 tenths per lap adds up to a lot of time over a race
    Clearly disadvantaged by own team on pit strategies on several occasions – suggests there were likely more occasions/ instances when the team intention was to hide driver speed differentials
    Acknowledge however race starts cost Checo positions on some occasions but still is top 5 easily IMO and arguably given he was not getting full support from his own team half the time top 3.

Comments are closed.