Perez v Albon v Gasly: Who has better data as Max Verstappen’s team-mate?

Since the news broke that Sergio Perez will continue at Red Bull after the F1 2024 summer break, there have been many doubts over whether it is the right decision.

As we already saw in comparison to Daniel Ricciardo, who was the best candidate to replace Sergio Perez , the Australian had not really done enough or at least not enough to return to share the garage with Max Verstappen. The data and Helmut Marko himself confirmed this feeling.

Sergio Perez measured against drivers of Red Bull’s past

Red Bull has been well known in recent years for its drastic decisions to replace drivers who have not been close to Verstappen’s performance.

After dominant seasons in 2022 and 2023, when Perez has fulfilled his mission as number two driver, this season is proving difficult for the Mexican and to the point that replacement rumours have been incessant.

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But how does Perez really compare to Verstappen’s other former Red Bull team-mates who were sacked? And did drivers like Alex Albon or Pierre Gasly deserve to be demoted?

And does Perez deserve to continue alongside Verstappen?

Pierre Gasly F1 stats

The first of those axed by Red Bull alongside Verstappen was Gasly during the 2019 season.

The Frenchman was coming in to replace Ricciardo who declined the chance to renew with the Milton Keynes-based team to sign for Renault. Gasly, promoted from Toro Rosso, only lasted half a season alongside Verstappen at Red Bull.

In 2019, Red Bull had the third best car on the grid behind Mercedes and Ferrari. Still, it was a car capable of fighting for one-off victories and podiums, or at least Verstappen managed to do so.

Verstappen scored a pole position and five podiums, including two wins in the 12 races in which the two shared a garage.

For his part, Gasly achieved a fourth position as best qualifying result and a P4 in the 2019 British GP as best race result. It was also the only time that the Frenchman finished ahead of Verstappen, who collided with Sebastian Vettel during the race at Silverstone.

In 12 races, Gasly’s average qualifying position was 8.92 and his average race position was 7.72.

Gasly scored 63 points in his 12 races with Red Bull. In the same 12 races, Max Verstappen scored 181 points.

In other words, Gasly only contributed 25.82% of Red Bull’s points while Verstappen gave the Milton Keynes-based team 74.18% of the team’s points before the summer break.

Alex Albon F1 stats

Current Williams driver Albon was Gasly’s direct replacement for the remainder of the 2019 season alongside Verstappen as Red Bull really wanted to overtake Ferrari for P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.

In the remaining nine races of 2019, Albon managed a P5 as best qualifying result and a P4 as best race result.

However, in the Brazilian GP he suffered a touch from Lewis Hamilton with two laps to go which prevented him from finishing P2 after starting the race in P5.

In these nine races, Albon’s average qualifying position was 8.66. In the race, his average position was 6.22. Better records than Gasly that allowed him to keep the seat for the following season.

In 2020, in the opening race, Albon was in the hunt with both Mercedes cars for victory and his first podium in F1, but again contact with Hamilton ruined his chances.

On both occasions, the Mercedes driver was found to be predominantly to blame for these incidents.

Albon scored just two more podiums that season and several P4s as his best qualifying result. This clearly helped Red Bull to second place in the Constructors’ Championship as the second strongest car on the grid.

His average qualifying position in 2020 was 7.35 while his average race position was 7.75.

The Thai driver took a clear step back in race performance, although his end of season stats improved slightly with his average race position being 5.0 in the last four races he completed with Red Bull.

Albon finished the season in P7 in the Drivers’ Championship scoring 32.92% of the team’s points, while Verstappen finished P3 with 67.08% of Red Bull’s points.

Sergio Perez F1 stats

Perez joined Red Bull in 2021 to replace Albon alongside Verstappen after a great season with Racing Point and an unexpected win at the 2020 Sakhir GP.

It took the Mexican driver five races to get going, but he scored his first win with the team in his sixth race at the Azerbaijan GP.

Perez was key in Verstappen’s first World Drivers’ Championship, being the Dutch driver’s best wingman in the last race in Abu Dhabi, holding off Hamilton to allow his team-mate to chase him down.

In addition, apart from his first win, Perez scored three more podium finishes in a row in the middle of 2021.

In 2022, with the introduction of the new technical regulations, Red Bull clearly became the dominant team on the grid. Thanks to this and a good adaptation, Perez scored two more victories, one of them at the prestigious Monaco GP and the other at the Singapore GP.

To these victories, another nine podiums were added, which helped the Mexican driver to finish the season in third place in the Drivers’ Championship.

However, in a controversial Brazilian GP, Verstappen refused to give up his position to Perez so that he could finish ahead of Charles Leclerc in the final standings for the runner-up position.

Perez, prior to this, had given up his position to Max so that he could attack.

In 2023, with Red Bull still dominant, Perez took two early season wins in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, but faded as the races went on. In addition to those two victories he scored a further seven podium finishes.

With these records Red Bull secured its second consecutive Constructors’ Championship with Verstappen and Perez as team-mates.

Now in 2024, with Red Bull no longer the dominant car, Perez’s situation is very similar to that of Gasly and Albon.

However, at the start of the season the RB20 was still the benchmark of the grid and this helped the Mexican driver to score four podiums in the first five races.

Since the introduction of McLaren’s major upgrades in Miami and the resurgence of Mercedes, Perez has not been able to finish higher than P7 in races.

Right now, Red Bull is still leading the Constructors’ Championship, but without an immediate reaction from Perez and an upgrade to the RB20 the chances of winning the trophy look increasingly remote.

Perez v Albon v Gasly: the final stats

If we put together all the numbers and stats of Verstappen’s last three team-mates, we get the following comparison table:

As we can see, Perez has the best average qualifying position and average race position data. This is mostly due to the fact that the Mexican driver had a more dominant car than Gasly and Albon back in the day.

Of course, Perez has been a key part of the Red Bull team until this past season. However, no other driver has done enough to dislodge him.

It seems clear that the gap between Gasly and Verstappen was too wide. However, Albon’s numbers are similar to those of Perez in 2023 and this season, both going from strength to strength.

In a less dominant car than Perez has at his disposal, it is perhaps Albon’s stint at Red Bull that looks to have aged the better.

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