The return of Daniel Ricciardo to the Formula 1 driver lineup spawned many theories about his future in the sport, and a potential “fairytale” return to Red Bull. The fact that Red Bull’s current second driver, Sergio Pérez, has been struggling in recent weeks — particularly in qualifying — only fueled those theories.
Sergio Pérez’s Hungarian Grand Prix week could not have started worse
The Red Bull driver’s crash in practice will only add to the mounting pressure
Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images
Mark Schofield is a former college quarterback and attorney covering the NFL and F1.
Pérez, who sits second in the Drivers’ standings, has a chance this weekend to put all of those stories behind him and silence any doubters.
But he will need to overcome a tough start to the weekend to do that now.
In a first practice session dominated by wet and rainy conditions, Pérez found the barrier at Turn 5 after touching the grass, and the slick surface caused his RB19 to spin off the track, and into the barrier:
Perhaps making matters worse, a crane was needed to move his RB19 off the track, giving the rest of the grid another look at Red Bull’s floor design:
Pressure has been mounting on Pérez in recent weeks, who has not seen Q3 since the Miami Grand Prix at the start of May. Since then, these have been his qualifying results:
- Crash in Q1 at the Monaco Grand Prix, a race where he was considered a favorite
- Failure to advance to Q3 at the Spanish Grand Prix after sliding off the track in Q2 and taking damage
- Failure to advance to Q3 at the Canadian Grand Prix in challenging — and changing — wet conditions
- Failure to advance to Q3 at the Austrian Grand Prix when his lap times in Q2 were deleted for “exceeding track limits”
- Failure to advance to Q2 at the British Grand Prix after struggling in Q1 with track conditions
Now, this is just the first practice session of three before qualifying at Hungaroring on Saturday. But given the pressure Pérez is under, this is not a welcome sight for him, or the team.
Red Bull — who are chasing history this weekend as they seek an F1-record 12th consecutive victory — also brought some upgrades to the track for this weekend. But with his crash early in FP1 the team scrambled to get Pérez’s car ready to make the most of the next two practice sessions.
The team managed to get Pérez on the track for FP2, but the driver fared little better. He finished back in P18, ahead of only Oscar Piastri and George Russell. Complicating matters is the fact that Piastri and Russell posted their laps on the medium tyres, while Pérez posted his best time on the soft compound.
That put Pérez dead last among the drivers on the softs, behind Logan Sargeant, Kevin Magnussen, and yes if you are wondering, Daniel Ricciardo.
Maybe Saturday will be better for Pérez? But if recent history is any indication, it might not be.
Note: This piece was updated with the results from FP2.
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