The figure that reflects the difficulties of Verstappen's teammates

In a start to the season dominated by McLaren and where it appears dominated, Red Bull can only count on one man: Max VerstappenThis was already the case in recent campaigns, but the recent performances of its garage neighbors confirm this trend a little more.

Sergio Pérez's 2024 season is the perfect illustration of this. After a very strong start, helping Red Bull secure three one-two finishes in the first four Grands Prix, Checo then simply collapsed. His podium finish in the fifth race of the year in China was his last before a downward spiral. In the next 3 races, his best result was a fourth place (the following weekend in Miami), while he never saw the top five again all season, suffering a string of poor performances and accidents.

Verstappen alone against all

A striking observation since the Mexican scored 152 points over the entire year, including 103 in the first 6 rounds. This caused Red Bull to fall in the Constructors' standings and lose the title as the team moved from first to third place overall, behind Ferrari and the champions McLaren.

Powerless, Sergio Pérez therefore had no more arguments to defend himself when it came time to take stock at the end of the season and Red Bull logically decided to end their collaboration after 4 years of ups and – many – downs.

Liam Lawson was chosen to take over, but the situation hasn't changed. Despite all the expectations with the arrival of a young driver likely to evolve at a higher level after showing great things at Racing Bulls in 2024, the Milton Keynes team is unable to find balance on the track. The observation is still the same: Max Verstappen manages to get the best out of the car and even to place it above its real level where its garage neighbor will have a lot of difficulty adapting and performing.

© Florent Gooden / DPPI

The current series bears witness to these difficulties, as evidenced by the gap in points scored between Max Verstappen and the Sergio Pérez-Liam Lawson tandem over the last 20 Grands Prix: 337 against 49. That is a gap of 288 points. These 49 points were even all collected by the Mexican over the last 18 races of the 2024 season, while the New Zealander retired in Australia after an off-course and finished 15th in China (finally 12th after the disqualifications of gasly, Hamilton and Leclerc) for his first two appearances with Red Bull. As it turns out, there's a real balance problem for the Austrians, who are sailing with a single captain. But will they be able to find a solution as time runs out?

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