While the upcoming F1 season is yet to get underway, talk has already turned to the driver market for 2025 in light of the seismic move by Lewis Hamilton to switch to Ferrari. With a vacancy at Mercedes to play for – and other seats in the field yet to be confirmed – several drivers will be feeling the pressure to prove themselves in 2024.
Amongst these will be Sergio Perez, now entering into his fourth year at Red Bull, and with questions remaining over his future.
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The Mexican started the 2023 season in strong form, having claimed two race wins in the opening rounds of the championship. However, he endured struggles as the year progressed and did not claim another victory, while team mate Max Verstappen surged to a record-breaking 19 race wins en route to his third World Championship.
This has left Perez’s position within the team uncertain. The 34-year-old is determined to bounce back in 2024, while the areas in which he needs to improve in order to keep his job for 2025 have been set out for him.
Having said that, Perez’s ability to cope with the challenging task of being Verstappen’s team mate has been praised. A look at the recent past would back this, given that Perez’s two predecessors – Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon – did not last as long in the seat.
This got us wondering – how does Perez stack up in comparison to the 11 other drivers who have raced for Red Bull since the team launched in 2005? Well, we’ve delved into the statistics to answer that question.
As is the case with examining any aspect of Formula 1 history, it should be noted that many things have changed in the sport in those 19 years. The points system is now more generous, while the regulations have undergone numerous developments. Nonetheless, the figures make for interesting reading…
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A good place to begin is to look at the number of races each driver in Red Bull’s history has entered for the team. Perez is currently sixth in the list with 66 under his belt, and is on course to overtake David Coulthard – one of the squad’s original drivers back in 2005 – during the early stages of the 2024 season.
He will not quite, however, surpass the 100 races amassed by Daniel Ricciardo, the man who has been touted as a potential replacement for Perez should the Mexican fail to deliver in the year ahead.
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Six drivers sit behind Perez in the list. Along with the aforementioned Albon and Gasly – who achieved 26 and 12 race starts respectively for Red Bull – Christian Klien took part in 28 Grands Prix and shared his seat with Vitantonio Liuzzi (four races) and Robert Doornbos (three races) in 2005 and 2006.
Daniil Kyvat, meanwhile, competed in 21 races for the team before making way for a certain Max Verstappen – Red Bull’s longest-serving driver – in 2016. And the rest there is history…
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Out of these 12 drivers, only five have won a race whilst driving for Red Bull. Unsurprisingly, Verstappen sits at the top of this list on 54 victories, 16 ahead of fellow world champion Sebastian Vettel.
Perez has achieved five Grand Prix wins in his career with the team, but this is a category where he could feasibly climb up the rankings. He needs just two more to equal Ricciardo in the list, a goal that statistically seems possible given the two victories he achieved in 2023. However, Perez would need to add an additional two wins to this in order to match Mark Webber, who won on nine occasions for Red Bull.
It is worth noting that the calendar has continued to expand in recent years, meaning that the season is longer and features more races, thus providing the opportunity for more wins.
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