Sergio Perez is heading into the 2024 F1 season realizing that he’s racing for his Crimson Bull profession.
The 33-year-old Mexican is dealing with arguably probably the most tough season of his profession as he goes into the ultimate yr of his present Crimson Bull contract amid enormous uncertainty.
After a considerably underwhelming 2023, at the least within the context of what his teammate Max Verstappen achieved in the identical automobile, Perez’s future will likely be one of many greatest tales to comply with over the approaching months.
Perez is aware of his seat is up for grabs and many of the grid would bounce on the likelihood to take it away from him given the prospect.
So, what can he do to maintain maintain of it?
Handle his qualifying weak spot
Finding out his qualifying type needs to be on the high of the agenda for Perez.
Even Crimson Bull staff principal Christian Horner cited qualifying as Perez’s greatest space for enchancment in an interview with Sky earlier than Christmas, admitting it has been his “Achilles’ heel”.
“We’d like him qualifying nearer the entrance, nearer to Max and placing extra stress on,” Horner defined. “We won’t afford for him to go lacking at sure factors of the championship and [not] have that consistency.”
Perez’s qualifying statistics in 2023 make for some damning studying.
He was out-qualified 20-2 by Verstappen, claimed two poles (10 fewer than Verstappen) and solely made it into Q3 on 13 events, struggling six Q2 exits and three Q1 knockouts. He failed to achieve Q3 for 5 consecutive occasions at his lowest ebb and didn’t beat Verstappen for the remainder of the season after that.
Given the dominant RB19 automobile he had at his disposal, a median grid place of 9.27 highlights how poor Perez was on Saturdays, giving himself far an excessive amount of to do on race day.
Perez’s race tempo is one among his strengths, so if he can get on high of his qualifying performances, he will likely be making his life a lot simpler.
Management the controllables
An age-old philosophy regarding sporting efficiency that Perez ought to heed.
Relatively than worrying about outdoors elements such because the type of rivals like Daniel Ricciardo, Perez must laser concentrate on his personal performances to get one of the best out of himself and take cost of his personal future.
Each psychology and momentum play an enormous function in sport and the identical is true in F1. Perez must be mentally on the high of his recreation to dam out all of the noise surrounding his future, and the questions that may certainly come.
Sergio Perez took his second (and remaining) win of 2023 in Baku
After his erratic type in 2023, Perez desperately wants to search out some consistency in his performances.
Many athletes compartmentalise with the ‘recreation by recreation’ cliche – or in an F1 driver’s case, ‘weekend by weekend’ – with a purpose to get one of the best out of themselves, reasonably than trying too far upfront.
Perez will probably profit from adopting this sort of mantra.
Cease attempting to beat Verstappen
This suggestion would possibly sound odd provided that an F1 driver’s first objective is to beat their teammate.
But when Perez has discovered something over the past couple of seasons, it’s best to simply accept the cruel actuality that Verstappen is solely on one other degree.
Primarily based on the proof we’ve handy, it’s exhausting to see with out some main misfortune taking part in a task, that Perez might beat Verstappen over the course of a season.
You solely have to take a look at the gaping disparity between them final yr to see that.
Sergio Perez has been no match for Max Verstappen
Verstappen gained 19 races to Perez’s two and scored sufficient factors to win the constructors’ championship for Crimson Bull single-handedly, selecting up greater than double the factors haul Perez managed.
Perez has already revealed his formidable goal for 2024 is to topple Verstappen and win his first F1 world title.
However to spice up his probabilities of retaining his place at Crimson Bull, Perez is perhaps higher served worrying much less about attempting to usurp Verstappen, minimize out the errors that include that, and settle for his place at a staff that’s finally constructed round his teammate.
