Pérez feels the pressure in race to keep Red Bull F1 seat

Mexico City GP	São Paulo GP	Las Vegas GP

 

Mexico City GP Even as the season closed into its last few races, talk about whether Sergio Pérez would retain his Red Bull drive into ’24 – as per his contract – raged on. He couldn’t control the speculation; all he could do was ignore it while trying to deliver the sort of performances which would bring it to an end. So as the ‘American’ leg of the championship continued – in his home country of Mexico followed by Brazil and the new Las Vegas Grand Prix – he had a lot to focus on.

He had two realistic targets: to clinch second in the points table to team-mate Max Verstappen and so give Red Bull its first ever 1-2 in the drivers’ championship; secondly, to reliably deliver the sort of competitive performances he is fully capable of but which he had not been doing of late. He wasn’t expected to compete with Verstappen, merely to show that he will be a solid support to him in ’24 when the competition from Ferrari, Mercedes and McLaren – each of them with super-strong driver line-ups – is anticipated to be closer.

As usual, he was very much the focus of attention in Mexico for the wildly enthusiastic crowd, which happily ignored the fact that Ferrari had locked out the front row, Charles Leclerc from Carlos Sainz. The red cars had suddenly found a great balance as the volatile track temperature came to them, something the team had been anticipating, hence the multiple in-out tyre preparation laps in Saturday practice before qualifying. Equalising the temperatures of the front and rear tyres as you head into the qualifying lap is particularly difficult here – and Ferrari had aced it, helped by a car which can always generate good front temperatures. Verstappen was left only third-quickest in a Red Bull which can be problematical in this regard. Pérez was far closer to him than usual – qualifying within 0.16sec and lining up two places behind. This was a very solid foundation in meeting his late-season tasks, even if the presence ahead of him of Daniel Ricciardo in the junior team’s AlphaTauri was a somewhat uncomfortable one, given that the Australian was tipped to be Pérez’s replacement if ‘Checo’ couldn’t do enough to retain the seat.

Pérez’s prospects briefly became even better in the opening seconds of the race the next day. He picked up a massive tow on the long run down to the first corner from the three-abreast Ferraris and Verstappen, and had so much more speed that he was able to flick left to bring himself level with Leclerc and Verstappen into the braking zone for the right-handed Turn 1. Carrying greater momentum than either and on the ideal outside approach line, a way seemed to be opening up for him to magically lead his home grand prix.

It was far too tempting an opportunity for a driver under such pressure and it would have required Leclerc to co-operate by braking early, something he was never going to do. Pérez was only marginally ahead as he turned in and his right-rear rode over the Ferrari’s front left, pitching Checo high into the air and landing heavily with terminally damaged suspension. Out within seconds, it was on the face of it an unmitigated disaster and did nothing for his hopes of holding onto second in the standings.

“I’ve had some really sad moments in my career, but certainly this is the saddest one,” he later reflected. “But at the end of the day, this is just racing. We gave it all. I really wanted to go for the win. I saw the gap, and I went for it. I was not expecting Charles to brake that late because I was already ahead of him, and he was in the middle. So there’s a lot less room for manoeuvre. It was just too late, but with these wide cars, three cars don’t go into one. I decided to take the risk and I paid the price. But I feel, to be honest, that I would have let everyone here down more if I didn’t go for it. I decided to take a risk and if I hadn’t I would have felt bad afterwards.”

“Max’s 51st victory put him level with Alain Prost’s career total”

But actually, the incident was far less damaging to his longer-term prospects than another off-the-pace midfield performance would have been. He had at least looked competitive.

A significant number of fans began to file out of the stadium immediately, but those who stayed saw an initially intriguing strategy battle for the win between two-stopping Verstappen and one-stopping Leclerc. This was a contest ultimately thwarted at around half-distance by a red flag for a Kevin Magnussen accident. This allowed everyone to change tyres and so the strategy battle dissolved with everyone running to the end without further stops, allowing Verstappen to stroke to a comfortable victory, his 51st, putting him level with Alain Prost’s career total. The Mercedes was working quite well here and Lewis Hamilton undercut himself ahead of Sainz before the red flag and subsequently was able to catch and pass Leclerc for runner-up. Lando Norris staged a fantastic comeback from his 18th-place starting position, passing car after car in his McLaren to finish fifth and closing on the fourth-placed Ferrari of Sainz.

Onto the São Paulo Grand Prix (no longer named the Brazilian Grand Prix on account of where the funding comes from), which was run to the sprint format. A huge storm hit just as the top-10 cars were making their first Q3 runs in qualifying on Friday. A severe wind preceding the rain – enough to pull off a grandstand roof – affected the balance of the cars radically, especially through the constant turns of the middle sector. Not knowing of the wind, only feeling its effect on balance, Verstappen was convinced he’d qualified miles off the pace as he crossed the line for the lap which would stand as pole. Leclerc had been about to abandon the lap which put him second. The Astons Martins of Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso had been the first to get out of the pits and so found the track at its least windy, allowing them to fill the second row. The McLarens – which had looked Red Bull’s biggest threat in the practices – got out late, leaving Norris, who had been fastest in Q2, seventh. Pérez? He too was late out but had been within 0.4sec of Verstappen up to the penultimate corner when he encountered yellow flags for a spinning Oscar Piastri. He would line up ninth for the main race.

Before then came the sprint, for which Norris had qualified his McLaren on pole, ahead of Verstappen. But once the Red Bull driver won the start, the outcome was decided. Verstappen had Norris contained but the pair left the others far behind. Pérez was best of the rest though, holding onto his grid position of third, albeit 13sec behind after just 24 laps.

For the main race, Pérez had a tougher task, given his starting position. He was at least helped by Leclerc’s Ferrari breaking down on the lap to the grid with no hydraulics, leaving the outside front row slot empty. Norris vaulted from seventh straight up to second just before the race was red-flagged for a first corner incident mid-pack. On the front row alongside Verstappen for the restarted race, Norris was again beaten by the Red Bull into Turn 1. He got close enough for a nibble on the third lap but thereafter Verstappen was able to pull himself out of the McLaren’s DRS reach. Each of the three stints in this two-stop race were essentially repeats of the sprint race, with Verstappen controlling Norris as they pulled well clear of everyone else. “That’s the first time in my F1 career I’ve been in a position to try to pass Max,” said Norris afterwards. It probably won’t be the last.

Pérez did a workmanlike job in making up positions from his compromised grid slot and by halfway through the race was closing in on Alonso’s third place. But his tyre change timings had him on older rubber than the Aston and he had to preserve them, so it took a time for the pair to finally begin dicing. The climax came on the last few laps as Alonso ferociously and cleverly defended, each time getting a better line out of the final two turns to give himself a better launch onto the straight. It seemed inevitable that Pérez would find a way by eventually and it came on the penultimate lap. But running slightly too deep into the Senna Esses made him vulnerable down to Turn 4 and Alonso pounced to reclaim the place. Pérez slipstreamed him up the hill for the final time and they crossed the line hundredths of a second apart, but with the Aston ahead. Again Pérez had been beaten by a slower car, although his performance was respectable, and it was against one of the best performances of a great driver’s long career.

“That’s the first time in my career I’ve been in a position to pass Max”

Vegas didn’t initially look like it was going to be kind to Pérez, despite it being the sort of street circuit on which he often excels. He didn’t make it out of Q2, having tried to make it through on just one set of new soft tyres and he would be starting 12th. The circuit could hardly have been better configured for Ferrari: super-long straights, only short, slow corners and very cool track temperatures in the desert night. They duly qualified first and second, Leclerc on pole. Sainz however was taking a 10-place grid penalty for replacing the battery which had been destroyed in first practice by an errant drain cover. Although the stewards agreed with Ferrari’s contention that no blame could be laid at the team’s door for this damage, the penalty applied anyway as there was no mechanism within the regulations for them to not apply it.

After the first two practice sessions Red Bull gave up on trying to out-qualify Ferrari and the lower downforce wing chosen for Verstappen into qualifying was slower over the lap but at least gave him the chance of racing the Ferrari. It was done in the foreknowledge of Sainz’s penalty, and Verstappen duly qualified third-fastest, putting him on the front row.

The circuit, which takes in the famous Vegas Strip, made for spectacular viewing, combining Monza speeds with a walled street track and a very low-grip surface. That surface was responsible for Alonso spinning into the first turn of the race and triggering a sequence of events that initially looked disastrous for Pérez. He clipped the back of Valtteri Bottas’s stationary Alfa which had collided with the spinning Aston, requiring Pérez to visit the pits for a new nose and rejoining last. But at least the safety car period allowed him not to be left behind by the pack. Furthermore, the stop allowed him to get off the medium tyres on which he’d started and onto the hards, which the Red Bull much preferred. At the resumption of racing he quickly began making progress through the pack.

Meanwhile Verstappen, having pushed Leclerc beyond the track edge to take the lead at the start had been given notice of a 5sec penalty to be taken at his pitstop. He initially pulled clear of the Ferrari, trying to get out of its DRS zone and subsequently to build up a margin of 5sec or more to overcome the penalty. But in doing so he overworked the medium compound tyres. As the front-right began to open up, so Leclerc came back at him and overtook on the same lap that Verstappen came in far earlier than intended for his pitstop. The compressed field from the earlier safety car and the extra 5sec wait before work could begin on his car ensured he dropped all the way down to 10th upon rejoining.

Leclerc ran an extra five laps before making his stop and rejoined four places ahead of his rival. One of the three cars between him and Verstappen was the other Ferrari of Sainz. With such an advantage, it was difficult to see how Leclerc was going to lose this race.

As Leclerc had pitted, the lead was assumed by Pérez! It meant less than it looked. He was simply out of sequence on his stops but appeared set to rejoin well inside the top 10 after he eventually pitted. It was good progress from last in just 21 laps but wasn’t going to put him in the frame for victory. But then everything changed –massively in Red Bull’s favour.

“Just as in Brazil, Pérez had lost position on the last lap”

Ironically, the trigger for this change in fortune was George Russell turning in on Verstappen, damaging the Red Bull’s front wing and the Merc’s bodywork. The carbon fibre debris littering Turn 12 meant the safety car was once again scrambled. Which worked beautifully for Pérez – giving him his second almost free pitstop, allowing him to rejoin second. It also allowed Verstappen to pit for a fresh set of hard tyres. He rejoined fifth, with the cars of Pierre Gasly and Oscar Piastri between him and Pérez.

This was on lap 26, just five laps after Leclerc had pitted. The Ferrari pitwall decided to keep Leclerc out, reasoning that it would buy him back the lead and on tyres only five laps older than those on the Red Bulls. “But the problem was trying to restart a used tyre after a safety car is incredibly difficult at those temperatures,” explained Leclerc later. “There we lost the race.”

But lost it to whom? The three-car battle which ensued between Leclerc and the two Red Bulls was thrilling. Pérez made a DRS pass on the Ferrari for the lead on lap 32 as Verstappen made relatively easy passes on the Alpine and McLaren to line himself up third, now right with Leclerc. Pérez, with a bigger wing than Verstappen, knew he would be vulnerable to him if Max got past the Ferrari too. So Pérez did not pull away out of Leclerc’s DRS zone, instead trying to pull him along fast enough that Verstappen would be stuck behind the Ferrari. But he didn’t reckon on just how late Leclerc could brake into Turn 14 at the end of the strip. Two laps after losing the lead, Leclerc had it back.

Verstappen, as Pérez had feared, was comfortably able to DRS his way past for second. A lap later he did the same to Leclerc for the lead. All that was left was a further game of DRS cat and mouse between Leclerc and Pérez for second, with the Ferrari going ahead. Just as in Brazil, Pérez had lost a position on the last lap. But at least these were podiums – and that third place had sealed him second place in the drivers’ championship. It wasn’t full redemption, but it was probably enough.