Much of the focus has been on the Max Verstappen vs. Lewis Hamilton battle so far in the 2021 Formula 1 season, but is there another battle we may be ignoring?
The 2021 Formula 1 season has been the Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton show so far, with the Red Bull driver and the Mercedes driver each taking three victories through the season’s first seven races amid Red Bull’s resurgence as they aim to dethrone the seven-time reigning world champions.
Verstappen has recorded six top two finishes so far this season, with his lone finish outside of the top two coming as a result of a late tire failure in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he leads Hamilton by 12 points (131-119) in the driver standings heading into today’s Styrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring.
But coming off of what was somewhat of a surprise win for Red Bull at what is generally a Mercedes stronghold in Circuit Paul Ricard, could there be another battle that we may be ignoring?
Don’t look now, but Sergio Perez is within striking distance of Hamilton for second place in the driver standings.
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In third place, Perez sits 35 points behind Hamilton, which is still a larger total than can be made up on any individual driver in a single race, but he has adapted quite well to the RB16B through his first seven starts with the Milton Keynes-based team and seems to be improving every race; he is the only driver who has finished on the podium in both of the last two events.
If Red Bull can continue to outperform Mercedes, specifically at tracks where Mercedes have generally been dominant during the V6 turbo hybrid era, this should naturally aid Verstappen in his quest for his first world championship. And it should also play right into Perez’s hands.
Perez has already proven that he can give Red Bull what they have lacked in their second car since the departure of Daniel Ricciardo in 2018. He has basically been exactly what Valtteri Bottas had been at Mercedes from 2017 to 2020.
He is there to pick up the pieces when things go wrong for Verstappen, as he did by winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and he is capable of scoring solid points even when he isn’t winning, as he did in six of the other seven races that have been contested so far this year.
Given the fact that the Red Bull vs. Mercedes battle has been so tight, this hasn’t been as clear-cut as it was in Bottas’s case when the Silver Arrows were dominant, but just take a look at what the 31-year-old Mexican has done in recent weeks.
Perez and Hamilton have the same average finish over the last six races (4.67), and Perez’s average finish is better than Hamilton’s over the last five (3.40 to 5.20), four (3.25 to 6.25), three (2.67 to 8.00) and two races (2.00 to 8.50). In fact, he leads all drivers in average finish over the last five, four, three and two races.
Even at Circuit Paul Ricard, where Hamilton dominated in both 2018 and 2019, Perez only finished one spot behind the seven-time world champion.
Of course, some of this difference in average finish can be chalked up to Hamilton’s fluke 15th place finish in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix due to his late lock-up, marking his first finish outside of the top nine since July 2018.
But Perez himself had a disappointing result in the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where he failed to score any points with an 11th place finish. Aside from this result, he has not finished a race outside of the top five as a Red Bull driver.
Beating Hamilton is going to be challenging enough for Verstappen to do. But if Verstappen can start to open up his advantage over the seven-time world champion, could Perez give Red Bull at least the glimpse of an opportunity for a 1-2 finish in the driver standings, something that they weren’t even able to accomplish during their run of four straight world titles from 2010 to 2013?
It’s certainly a longshot, but there’s no reason to believe that Perez won’t continue to improve.
Today’s race, the Styrian Grand Prix, is set to be broadcast live on ESPN from the Red Bull Ring beginning at 9:00 a.m. ET. Mercedes won both races at the track last year, one with Bottas and one with Hamilton, but Red Bull won there in both 2018 and 2019 with Verstappen. Verstappen is set to start from the pole position ahead of Hamilton in second place and Perez in fourth.