Is Perez RedBull's Missing Link?
- Rami
- Jan 30, 2021
- 5 min read
With Sergio taking Alex's seat for the 2021 season, fans are beginning to speculate whether or not Perez will finally break the bad-luck chain of the second Red Bull seat.
In 2020, Alex Albon was consistently outperformed by his teammate, Max Verstappen, in every race of the season. The same can be said for Pierre Gasly for the first half of 2019. And in 2018, Daniel Ricciardo left the team after he claimed he needed a 'fresh start'. Since Daniel left, Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly just haven't seemed to control the car the same way Max can - meaning constant disappointment for them both, but will this year be different, with a more experienced driver coming to the team?
Perez has been in F1 for about 10 years now, starting in 2011 at Sauber, but not being able to grab the win until 2020 at the Sakhir Grand Prix. With all this experience, Checo definitely knows his way around an F1 car, but the question that plagues everyones mind whilst waiting for the start of the 2021 season is: Will Perez be the competitive teammate for Verstappen that RedBull have been searching for?
It is common knowledge that Perez has talent. Throughout 2020, he performed incredibly, really competing with McLaren for the 3rd place in the championship, which really shows his immense growth since being with teammate Esteban Ocon. During the time in which Ocon and Perez drove for Racing Point/Force India, the pair found a rivalry and often found themselves out of races, or with punctures, due to colliding with one another; one key example of this was at the Singapore Grand Prix in 2018 - which ended with Ocon in the wall after both cars were in the top 10 and set for a good race. This instance in particular made many fans of the sport ask if Perez was 'too crash friendly' and good enough to keep his seat.
As we know, Perez did end up keeping his seat for the 2019 and 2020 seasons and has since proven himself to have matured massively, which will be a good start for his RedBull season, especially since Max Verstappen, his new teammate, is often referred to as immature - which is probably due to his very young start in Formula One.
RedBull has been criticised for their 'favouritism' towards their very talented Dutch driver, with the fanbase making it clear that the treatment of Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon was unfair - their pace never seemed to match that of their teammate and to the fans, it seemed like they just weren't treated nicely - Gasly got removed from his RedBull seat halfway through a season, and according to some sources (I'm not sure about their reliability so take this with a pinch of salt), Albon only found out he was being replaced the day it was released to the media.
This had lead fans to ask whether Perez's move to RedBull is the smart decision - out of the three, Perez is definitely the more experienced driver and has proven constantly that he has the talent to go on to win more than one GP - with the other two (Gasly and Albon) being so young/new to the sport, they are seemingly yet to prove themselves (though many will agree when I say that Gasly has proven himself an incredible driver this 2020 season).
Image from EuroSport
These factors of experience, talent and Red Bulls' treatment of their drivers show that Perez does seem like the obvious choice. Not only will he bring even more competitiveness to the team, but he also may act as an experienced idol, and someone who Verstappen can take a few pointers off - which may help them both go on to be very successful. There is a chance, however, that the pair prove to be rivals. They are both extremely competitive and very driven for the top spot - as we have seen respectively. This poses a threat of the teammates becoming a bit like 2018 Red Bull - constantly crashing into each other and maybe causing a wedge between the pair.
Ricciardo and Verstappen made for great viewing, but for the team, they often ended up crashing into each other and there seemed to be a lot of tension over team radio about each other, which many speculate as to being the reason Ricciardo felt the need to get a 'fresh start' at Renault in 2019. Ricciardo went on to call Max 'immature' in some interviews but they still seem to be great friends, even off track and in videos together.
Many are speculating that Perez and Verstappen may be a repeat of this - especially due to the pairs mixed experience and extreme drive to win. I think with this new line-up there is no question about the talent that the team now possesses, and as long as they the same quality (or better) car as the past few years, they could be a real competitor for Mercedes this year.
Verstappen has been a fan favourite since he joined the sport in 2015, with many claiming he will go on to win World Championships in the future, and with an experienced teammate to push him to his limits, this could be the year that Verstappen really makes a dent in that goal. I think with the pressure from a widely loved and talented driver, Max will be pushed harder and I think that works both ways, Perez is going to have a lot to live up to in this Red Bull seat and will surely want to prove the people who claim he is undeserving, wrong.
Personally, I think Red Bull will be a hard team to ignore next season, I think they will either thrive and be constantly in podium positions, or they will have a rivalry such as Verstappen and Ricciardo or Perez and Ocon did - either way, I think we are all just as excited to watch it play out.
Obviously, it will be hard to tell before the season starts and without seeing the car in practice, but either way, the Red Bull 2021 driver line-up is very strong and I have very high hope for the team, expecting them to do better than they did in 2020 and be a strong competitor for the podium every week. Hopefully, with his experience, Perez will be able to find the same comfortability in the car that comes easy to Verstappen, but that previous drivers haven't been able to find, and will provide interesting viewing.
I think it will also be interesting watching the two drivers battle individually and see how they handle the car, especially in the overtaking department. Needless to say, this is a line-up I am excited for and it will be very interesting to watch it play out, especially with the hardships the teams other drivers have faced in recent seasons - Perez will definitely be one to watch in 2021.
Thank you guys so much for reading and I am sorry for the lack of posting recently, University is haaaaard but we're getting through it! I hope that this article was informative and a fun read and I hope you're as excited as me for the 2021 season!
- Rami
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