But the Japanese star has fared only slightly better. In a car that could take Verstappen to the drivers championship, Tsunoda is 17th in the standings with only 28 points to his name, three of which were scored before his promotion.<\/p>\n
Though Red Bull Racing said at the weekend\u2019s Mexico City Grand Prix that it will give Tsunoda more races to prove himself, paddock rumour has been rife that the deal to promote standout rookie Isack Hadjar from Racing Bulls into the senior team is as good as done.<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1761200708_112_poster-fallback.png\"\/)
<\/p>\n
The remaining question then would be whether there will be room for Tsunoda at Racing Bulls, though the junior Italian squad is tipped to take a line-up comprising Liam Lawson and academy driver Arvid Lindblad into 2026.<\/p>\n
Lawson and Tsunoda\u2019s struggles have been unsurprising to the sidelined P\u00e9rez, who said he saw the driver catastrophe coming from the moment he was given his marching orders last December.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like criticising the drivers that have been there, because I was in that position,\u201d he told Sky Sports. \u201cI know what exactly they\u2019re going through.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe minute is signed my exit with Red Bull, when we came to an agreement, I knew that, \u2018Poor guy who comes here,\u2019 because I managed to survive.\u201d<\/p>\n
PIT TALK PODCAST: Oscar Piastri has lost the title lead for the first time in 15 rounds after a recovery drive from seventh to fifth wasn\u2019t enough to counter a dominant victory by teammate Lando Norris. Where has it gone wrong for the Aussie, and can he fight back from here?<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez is understandably taking the chance to burnish his reputation ahead of his full-time comeback with Cadillac next year, but the data bears out his judgement.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda has fared worse on almost every metric relative to P\u00e9rez.<\/p>\n
The below data compares Tsunoda\u2019s 18 rounds at Red Bull Racing with P\u00e9rez\u2019s final 18 rounds of last season. That\u2019s not to discount P\u00e9rez\u2019s genuinely strong start to 2024 but rather to compare Tsunoda\u2019s form with the results that convinced the team to abandon the Mexican.<\/p>\n
Tsunoda is further adrift of Verstappen in qualifying.<\/p>\n
Qualifying differential<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez: 7.8 places behind (11.4 average)<\/p>\n
Tsunoda: 9.0 places behind (12.1 average)<\/p>\n
Despite that, the Japanese star is marginally closer when comparing single-lap pace.<\/p>\n
Time differential*<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez: 0.617 seconds slower<\/p>\n
Tsunoda: 0.558 seconds slower<\/p>\n
*all laps normalised to 80 seconds to make different circuits comparable.<\/p>\n
Unsurprisingly Tsunoda is finishing slightly further back in the races.<\/p>\n
Race differential<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez: 6.6 places behind (10.3 average)<\/p>\n
Tsunoda: 8.1 places behind (11.9 average)<\/p>\n
While both drivers collected deeply unimpressive scores, Tsunoda is scoring roughly half as prolifically as P\u00e9rez did.<\/p>\n
Points scored<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez: 49-301 points (16.28 per cent of Verstappen\u2019s score)<\/p>\n
Tsunoda: 25-285 points (8.77 per cent)<\/p>\n
Yuki calls out 12 second pit stop | 02:17<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez was sympathetic to Tsunoda\u2019s plight, saying no driver could look good alongside Verstappen at Red Bull Racing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult place,\u201d he said. \u201cObviously being next to Max is very difficult, but being next to Max in Red Bull is something people don\u2019t understand.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are so many things I could tell you, but it\u2019s simply just a very difficult job for a driver.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no driver that can survive there. It doesn\u2019t matter if you bring [Lewis] Hamilton or [Charles] Leclerc. Whoever you bring there is going to struggle massively.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique driving style that you have to constantly be adapting to the needs of Max. It\u2019s as simple as that.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez\u2019s 2024 fade-out and post-season sacking left him without a route onto this year\u2019s grid, though the Mexican admitted to needing a break to decide whether he wanted to commit to another year in the sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me a while, to be honest,\u201d he said. \u201cIt took me a good six months. I wanted to come back to finish my career properly.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time I thought, \u2018Does it really matter?\u2019. If I didn\u2019t get the right project, the right motivation to come back, I was not even going to consider it for a second.\u201d<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez was reportedly approached by Alpine as potential replacement for the underperforming Franco Colapinto in the middle of the year, as was Valtteri Bottas, but both skipped over the struggling French-owned squad to sign for the nascent Cadillac team, which will make its Formula 1 debut next season.<\/p>\n
P\u00e9rez suggested he found the opportunity to start with a new team more motivating.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very excited because I believe I still have a lot to give to the sport,\u201d P\u00e9rez said. \u201cI\u2019m very, very lucky with the career I\u2019ve had, but I want to finish it on a high.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that the last year has been difficult in my career. I know how good I can be with the right environment around me.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like people will be surprised how competitive, how good I will be on my comeback.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have that motivation already with me. I feel like I have this final point to prove in my career and make sure I leave whenever I want to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sergio P\u00e9rez thinks no driver will be able to survive alongside Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":247658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[147037,2095,14212,64,63,2791,23692,147039,147036,147041,147035,14210,147038,21779,21743,817,813,816,2105,10114,59966,147040,1737,791,17337,825,2184,23956,2041,90128,2119,14224,14217,146827,2072,2643,85,14209,14219,5077],"class_list":["post-247657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-academy-driver","tag-america","tag-arvid-lindblad","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-central-america","tag-charles","tag-data-bears","tag-disastrous-race-weekend","tag-driver-catastrophe","tag-driver-change-rumours","tag-driver-market","tag-driver-switch","tag-drivers-championship","tag-driving-style","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-getty-images-inc","tag-isack-hadjar","tag-japanese-star","tag-junior-italian-squad","tag-lando-norris","tag-lewis","tag-marching-orders","tag-max-verstappen","tag-mexico","tag-mexico-city","tag-north-america","tag-peter-fox","tag-pit-talk","tag-points-scored","tag-race-differential","tag-recovery-drive","tag-sergio-perez","tag-sky-sports","tag-sports","tag-standout-rookie","tag-time-differential","tag-yuki-tsunoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/247658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}