10 startling statistics from Perez’s worst season at Red Bull yet · RaceFans

As the 2024 season neared its end, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted his decision to hand Sergio Perez an early contract extension in June “obviously didn’t work.”

Having been comprehensively beaten by team mate Max Verstappen for much of 2023, their third season alongside each other, Perez got his 2024 campaign off to a promising start. But his form nose-dived soon afterwards and Red Bull found themselves inundated with questions over whether they would do a U-turn over their decision to extend his contract until the end of 2026.

As the final race approached, Red Bull finally admitted his position would be reviewed after the end of the season. After he was blamelessly eliminated on the first lap of the season finale, Perez said they will discuss “what’s best for everyone going forward.”

After the season he’s had, it’s hard to imagine Red Bull continuing with him for another, let alone two. Here’s how bad it got for Perez in 2021.

One good quarter

Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Shanghai International Circuit, 2024 — Shanghai saw Perez’s fourth podium visit in five races

Perez ended the season in such poor form it was easy to overlook the fact he made a respectable start to the championship. When Red Bull’s car was at its best he reeled off four podium finishes from the first five races, and completed one-twos for the team in three of those.

Six points in he lay second in the standings on 103 points. Incredibly, he scored less than half that – just 49 points – over the remaining three-quarters of the season.

One shocking third

Perez’s form over the final third of the year stood in sharpest contrast to the start of the season. From those eight rounds he took just nine points; Verstappen picked up 134 over the same period, out-scoring his team mate by a factor of almost 15.

During that time 11 other drivers scored more points than the driver of the second Red Bull, including the drivers from their closest rivals McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari. The others who claimed more points than Perez also included Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg (both Haas), Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon (both Alpine). Perez only picked up one point more than RB’s Yuki Tsunoda over this period.

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Widest gap in championship

While Verstappen clinched the drivers’ championship with two rounds to spare, Perez put a lock on eighth in the standings at the next round. That meant the pair ended the season seven places apart in the championship – the widest margin of any pair of team mates who entered every round.

No-scores

Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2024 — Canada was one of eight grands prix he failed to score in

Perez failed to score at all in one-third of this year’s grands prix. On four of those occasions he was classified outside the points, including in Baku where he collided with Carlos Sainz Jnr.

He went out in a first-lap crash with Kevin Magnussen in Monaco, slid into a barrier in Canada, spun at a restart in Qatar and was taken out by Valtteri Bottas in Abu Dhabi.

No wins

The 2024 season set a new record for competitiveness as seven different drivers won more than one race each. They came from four different teams: McLaren, Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull.

Perez was the only full-time driver from those teams who failed to win all year. Team mate Verstappen took the most wins of any driver, with nine.

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Never finished ahead

Perez never took the chequered flag ahead of Verstappen all year. The only time he out-scored his team mate was when a technical problem took Verstappen out in Melbourne.

Spent least time ahead

To finish ahead you’ve got to get ahead, and Perez hardly ever did that. He was the only driver who contested the full season but spent less than 100 laps ahead of his team mate. Verstappen led his team mate for 1,132 laps, Perez was ahead for 77, most of which were in Baku.

Max Verstappen, Red Bull, Yas Marina, 2024 — Verstappen scored as many points this year as Perez in the last two seasons

Over the entire season, Perez was ahead of Verstappen on-track just 6.3% of the time – the lowest figure he has recorded over his four seasons at Red Bull.

Worst share of points

Perez’s points score was the lowest of his time at Red Bull, but that is partly to do with the performance of their car and their rivals’ as much as his.

More tellingly, he also made his smallest contribution to Red Bull’s points haul since he joined them. He scored just 25.8% of the team’s points, compared to 32.4% in his first season with them.

Verstappen’s championship-winning score of 437 this year happens to be exactly the same as Perez has scored in the last two years combined: 152 this year and 285 last season.

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Biggest qualifying defeat

Perez only narrowly avoided a whitewash in qualifying this year. Verstappen out-qualified him 23-1, the widest margin between any pair of team mates this year.

The only respite came in Baku, where Perez came out ahead after 33 straight losses (including the second half of 2023). Verstappen had a ragged run through Q3 and ended up two-tenths of a second off his team mate.

Biggest lap time deficit

The qualifying contest between the pair was not only one-sided, Verstappen was comfortably further ahead of his team mate each time of asking. Over the season he averaged 0.45 seconds per lap faster (excluding sessions we deemed unrepresentative e.g. due to rain).