Analyst claims Red Bull would be ‘fourth’ with Sergio Perez’s ‘shocking’ gap to Max Verstappen

Surprised by Sergio Perez’s deficit to Max Verstappen, Bernie Collins says Red Bull have to look to the future and the possibility of losing Verstappen as “two Perezs” would leave them P4 in the standings.

Red Bull may be leading the standings midway through the 2024 championship but there is by no means an equal division in points with Verstappen on 255 to Perez’s 118.

Sergio Perez’s gap to Max Verstappen is ‘pretty shocking’

But while last season Verstappen’s tally was enough that he could’ve single-handedly won the Constructors’ title for Red Bull, this year the competition has closed in and he’s not winning as many races. He needs Perez’s help, both on race day and in the standings.

Perez though has not come to the party since his last top three showing at April’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Recording just four points-scoring finishes in the last seven races, none of which were podium results, it is being reported the Mexican driver may not be in the RB20 after the summer break even though he signed a new deal back in May.

PlanetF1.com understands a clause in Perez contract allows Red Bull to drop him if he is more than 100 points behind Verstappen after the Belgian GP. Today he is 137 points down and there are only two races, Hungary and Spa, before the deadline is up.

Former Aston Martin strategist Collins, who worked with Perez, is surprised by his deficit to Verstappen.

“Yeah, I am surprised is the honest answer,” she told the Sky F1 podcast. “Verstappen is incredible. Because you’re always compared directly to a team-mate, it’s very difficult to get a good read. We can’t compare to Lewis, Leclerc or anyone.

“Unfortunately, some of the other people that went into the second Red Bull as really strong drivers were seemingly very easily beaten down and we didn’t get to compare a true like to like But I am a bit surprised.

“This year there are big questions being asked there, and I don’t know where it falls down. Is it that Checo is just not good enough, is it that the team is not working well enough, the car set-up isn’t in the right place?

“My understanding is the car is quite hard to drive. As a car you need to be settled.

“The gap’s quite big and then I think from a points point of view, if we just look at points at the end of a race the gap’s pretty shocking in terms of the contribution of the Red Bull team.

“The gaps in qualifying aren’t necessarily going to worry Red Bull too much because they know that the Verstappen is so strong, but the points at the end of the race are a big problem because that is what will lose them the World Championship as a team is the second car not scoring points.

“That’s again even in midfield teams, that’s what loses you that the positions is two cars are not consistently scoring points and if Max DNFs or he has a race that he needs to take a new engine penalty, Checo at this stage doesn’t appear like he’s going to be there to pick up the pieces.

“That is really detrimental to a team. A few of those haven’t been himself, there have been things and Red Bull are keeping better track of that than we are on the outside but still it’s not quite not there.”

The damning numbers in the Perez v Verstappen battle

👉 F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the British Grand Prix

Not quite is putting it politely as Collins reckons if Red Bull had two Sergio Perezs in the car, they’d only be fourth in the standings.

“Red Bull have had a good head start but if it was only starting now and if you had if you didn’t have Verstappen and you had two Perezs that would rank Red Bull probably as the fourth fastest team. That is massively detrimental to your income and how your team operates,” she said.

As such the analyst has urged Red Bull to look to the future, especially in light of continued rumours Verstappen could be off to Mercedes next season or at the latest 2026.

“When you see the talent or some of the younger drivers that are trying to come through, and the question marks over if Max is going to stay or not, then Red Bull really need to be looking at who is their next Max Verstappen,” she added.

According to Helmut Marko, that could be Arvid Lindblad or Isack Hadjar.

Speaking to Speedweek about the FIA’s decision to grant dispensation to some drivers younger than 18 for a Super Licence, he said of Lindblad: “Arvid Lindblad shone in Formula 3. He was a rookie who went straight from Formula 4 to Formula 3 and won both races.

“He is only 16 years old and we are delighted that he can now drive in Formula 1 at 17.”

He added: “Isack did well in his most recent test,” declared Marko. “He never had the soft tyres on his car, but he showed strong performances and his comments were good too.”

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