Red Bull have probably lost the constructors’ championship and associated extra prize money for finishing higher up this year with two races to go.
Max Verstappen performed to his usual high levels, bringing the drivers’ championship home for a fourth consecutive season.
But his teammate Sergio Perez has struggled to the extent that he has less than 40% of the tally of points accumulated by his teammate.
It provides a damning assessment of where his skills are at currently and will dent Red Bull’s hopes in the future if he continues to drive for them.
Sergio Perez’s damage record isn’t ‘too bad’ compared to Williams
It’s no secret that Perez has lacked speed on track, qualifying six positions lower than his teammate on average at every single event.
But he has been involved in his fair share of incidents and crashes too – fairly big ones casting an eye back to the massive Monaco shunt, or the one in qualifying in Hungary.
It has cost the team millions of pounds in crash damage, which will have delayed or impacted the production and implementation of upgrades and future developments.
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So not only will they miss out on constructors’ prize money, but they’re also having to fork out for crash damage – which overall might be costing them more than it’s worth having him for any marketing reasons.
Speaking on the RacingNews365 podcast, Red Bull test driver Rudy van Burden reminded people that the Mexican still hasn’t been as bad as Williams have in damages this year.
“Compared to Williams, everything isn’t too bad. Of course, you have to combine Colapinto and Sargeant, then you have a score that I don’t think will be given.”
Why Red Bull or Williams cannot afford this run to continue
Formula 1’s biggest crashes can cause two or three million pounds in damage each time, which is huge for any of the 10 teams.
That sort of money invested into developments can bring an extra half a tenth or so to the table, per incident that happens.
Adding up all of the Williams crashes, between Franco Colapinto, Logan Sargeant and even Alex Albon, they will have cost themselves a few tenths in performance – which may have knock-on effects for 2025.
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Red Bull, on the other hand, won’t be affected so much by the damage, but more by the lack of performance from Perez.
They should’ve won the constructors’ title this year, and instead, they will finish third – costing them somewhere in the region of $20 million or £16 million.
