Can you remember the last time Sergio Perez had a race weekend where his performance wasn’t criticized compared to Max Verstappen? In all likelihood, your answer would be a resounding ‘No.’ As unfortunate as that may sound, that’s Perez’s reality. At this point, his only options are to either start matching Verstappen or to live with the fact that he’ll be criticized for the rest of his time at Red Bull—something he’s been having to do a lot of this season. The Italian GP weekend hasn’t been any different, and the Mexican was yet again left scratching his head.

After having “the best Friday in a while” at Red Bull despite his meeting with the tire barrier towards the end of Free Practice 2, Saturday returned with the usual—the “usual” being Perez struggling during qualifying. Watching another one of Perez’s qualifying sessions unravel, former F1 driver Nico Rosberg revealed the Mexican’s biggest weakness.

Where is Sergio Perez losing out to Max Verstappen?

Despite his crash on Friday, Perez was confident about the car and his performance heading into Saturday. While the contact with the barriers didn’t seem like it would have any major consequences, a subsequent oil leak during FP3 meant he could run only a limited number of laps. So when he qualified fifth—with a humongous four-tenths margin to Verstappen in P2—he said, “Considering the situation, missing FP3, basically going blind, I didn’t run new tires today before qualifying, and it wasn’t an ideal day. But it is what it is.” 

After another underwhelming qualifying, as quoted by F1 Maximaal, Nico Rosberg said, “This is the same as always with Perez. On a long circuit, he loses six-tenths [to Verstappen], and on a short circuit, it’s four-tenths. It’s just always a big gap.” [Translated by Google] For most of the season, it’s been Perez’s qualifying performances that have been letting him down. Even though his race pace is usually pretty good, more often than not, he has to fight through the field to get back in front, by which time Verstappen’s already well clear of the pack.

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Verstappen has this ability to extract the maximum from the RB19 at every time of asking, but Perez just can’t seem to do that. Adding to his earlier statement, Perez said, “I think given how small the margins were, our preparation was not ideal. We had a lot of pace yesterday. I think yesterday was looking great. But unfortunately, we didn’t get to show what we were able to do today.” The thing is, compared to Verstappen, even Perez has accepted a fact we’ve all known for quite some time now.

Despite Claiming “I Can Do It Alone”, Max Verstappen Uses Sergio Perez to Destroy Lewis Hamilton

Sergio Perez admits defeat to Verstappen after Hamilton’s comments

Recently, Lewis Hamilton talked about Verstappen’s dominance, especially over his teammates. The seven-time champion said, “In my personal opinion, Valtteri [Bottas] and all my teammates have been stronger than the teammates Max has had.” By this, he basically undermined Verstappen’s teammates and alluded to the fact that Perez just isn’t at the same level as Verstappen. It looks like Perez has accepted this, too.

In an interview discussing Verstappen’s ongoing unbeatable run, the Mexican said, “He’s completely one with the car. No matter the conditions he’s in, he has a lot of confidence. He’s driving in another level. In all my years in Formula 1, I’ve never seen a driver as complete, driving always at 100%, being able to make most out of the car without making mistakes, and for as long as he’s done it. That’s impressive.”

Although every driver aims to beat their teammate first and foremost, the chances of that happening for Sergio Perez seem close to none. Apart from qualifying pace, is Max Verstappen gaining an advantage somewhere else as well?

WATCH THIS STORY | Sergio Perez Caught in the Crossfire as Sebastian Vettel Dismisses All Attempts to Downplay Verstappen’s Dominance