When you think of Sergio Perez’s driving style, you would think of things like his amazing defense, his street circuit speed—both his race wins this season were at street circuits in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan—or maybe even his ability to fight through the field. This season, we’ve witnessed all these aspects of his driving because he put himself in situations that brought out these qualities. And considering he’s in the RB19, the fastest car on the grid, he shouldn’t have been in positions where he had to fight through the field or defend against anyone other than his teammate, Max Verstappen. But that’s not what has transpired in 2023 because, more often than not, Perez’s continual errors have put him in those positions, and the Hungarian GP weekend started with another one of them.

In his first flying lap in the first practice session of the race weekend, Sergio Perez crashed into the tire wall going into Turn 5. And F1 journalist Peter Windsor had a few things to say about it. In a YouTube live stream on his channel, he said, “[The crash was] a classic Sergio thing, really.” These crashes and uncalled-for errors have happened so often this season that they’ve become more common than seeing the Mexican in Q3. In the past five race weekends, Checo hasn’t reached Q3 even once.

In trying to navigate through the quick left-hander Turn 4 directly into the Turn 5 right-hander, “he put a left rear wheel on the grass, caught an edge, and spun into the tire wall.” Considering Checo is in one of the best seats on the grid, Windsor couldn’t help but criticize his driving style. He said, “Very inelegant, not the sort of thing you would expect anyone to do in a Red Bull, let alone Sergio in this stage of the season. And that put him out for the session.” His crash didn’t just affect Red Bull’s data collection but also every other team’s.

Read More: “Doesn’t Change Anything”: Undeterred by Daniel Ricciardo’s Challenge, Sergio Perez Sends a Firm Message to Half of the Grid

He crashed in dry conditions, but once the session resumed after his car was cleared from the track. It had begun raining, and all the data teams gathered was based on wet-weather conditions while qualifying, and the race are expected to be dry. Needless to say, Red Bull wasn’t the only team upset with Perez. Given that Checo hadn’t been performing as expected till the last race weekend (which has also carried on to Hungary), Max Verstappen joined in on the criticism at the British GP. 

Sergio Perez isn’t helping Max Verstappen in Red Bull’s fight

After his win at the Azerbaijan GP, Checo has stood on the podium only twice—once in Miami and the other in Austria. To give some context to his performance, Verstappen stood on the top step of the podium in every race after Azerbaijan and has gotten pole position in every race after Miami. So when Perez got knocked out in Q1 at the British GP, Verstappen said, as quoted by marca.com, “I don’t know why things went wrong [with Perez] today, but of course, with our car, you have to get into Q3.”

Even though Red Bull is far ahead of the rest of the grid in the Constructors’ Championship, it can’t afford to slip up. But with Max belting out consistent performances at the top every race weekend, the Dutchman feels he can handle the drivers’ and the constructors’ titles alone. He said, “We are also fighting for the team championship. At the moment, I think I can do it alone.”

Do you think Sergio Perez’s seat at Red Bull is in danger for 2024?

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