“I Am Suffering”: Amid Growing Daniel Ricciardo Rumors, Sergio Perez Reacts on His Crumbling Form

The home fans have still not completely recovered from Sergio Perez making an unfortunate exit from the Mexican GP, bursting with curiosity about the Red Bull driver’s future. When the grid rolled up to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, all eyes were on the RB19 marked with ‘11’. After showing some stride in the practice sessions, Perez was hoping to put it on the front row in qualifying. But after delivering a mediocre hot lap, Perez found himself in Daniel Ricciardo’s rearview mirror.

The Honey Badger had just returned to AlphaTauri last week, after being sidelined because of an injury he suffered during the Dutch GP weekend. Looking to get up to speed, Ricciardo put in a flawless lap, placing himself on the second row! With Sergio Perez’s weekend unfolding by the minute, the worst came during the race. An eager Perez crashed out in the first lap itself, after his heroics into the first turn alongside Charles Leclerc and Verstappen. He would find out the hard way that going three-wide into a corner rarely works out!

Sergio Perez plagued with adaptability concerns after a rough Mexican GP

Adding to his woes is the ever-so-dominant Max Verstappen, who is pulling away in the Driver’s standings, increasing the lead he has over his teammate. This could play a huge role in Sergio Perez’s earnings because it’s looking likely he will fail to pass any performance clauses that tie him to a salary, at this rate.

The Mexican voiced his frustration with the RB19 and his ability to adapt to the car. He was quoted by MotorXpert in a tweet. Speaking about the edge Verstappen has over him, Perez said, “He has managed to get more performance out of him. I have more problems and I am suffering to try to solve them.”

Perez was highly critical of the setbacks he was facing in the wake of Verstappen’s record-breaking run. Shedding light on the fact that the Dutch Lion squeezes a little extra performance out of the car, while Perez is struggling to. It’s not surprising, because Verstappen has been Red Bull’s Centre of development for the past 5 years. As a result, any teammate Verstappen is up against will have a natural disadvantage, lack of experience with the RB chassis.

READ MORE: “Shows Who He Really Is”: How Max Verstappen Selfishly Soured Relations with Sergio Perez at the Brazilian GP

However, give a driver enough time, and they are bound to flourish. While it’s not been the case with Ricciardo or Raikonnen at Mclaren in the past, Perez pointed to the current Ferrari pairing. “If you look at Ferrari, it’s more or less the same with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.” – speaking about the cut-throat head-to-head between the Maranello drivers. Perez added, “You get the feeling that Carlos has finally understood his car better.” – referring to Carlos Sainz’s recent win in Singapore, Perez shed light on how close the two Ferrari drivers are every weekend, just think of their front-row lockout at the Mexican GP!

Will Daniel Ricciardo be a better teammate for Verstappen than Perez?

From his statements above, it’s evident that Perez is struggling to adapt to the RB19 the way Verstappen has. In a way, asking for more time by sharing the example of Sainz, who’s been with Ferrari for three years. But Christian Horner’s patience is wearing thin after Sergio Perez pulled off the Mexican GP fiasco. After all, Ricciardo had a mega weekend on his second outing back. The Honey Badger had struggled initially because he was given Yuku Tsunoda’s setup to drive with at the US GP. But the Mexican GP was going to be a different ball game.

With plenty of practice session time under his belt, Daniel Ricciardo and AlphaTauri were able to fine-tune the car to his liking. The Honey Badger prefers to trail brake into the corner, which means that he likes to carry maximum speed through the apex while turning the car using braking. While Tsunoda’s setup didn’t allow for this to happen, the setup this weekend was perfect. It was so dialed in that the Australian got P4 in Qualifying just a tenth behind Verstappen! If he could achieve this in an AlphaTauri, just imagine if he was in a Red Bull!

Christian Horner could see the spark within Ricciardo that was bright during his Red Bull days was back again. The Red Bull Boss told Sky Sports, “Look at the time delta to Max. It was less than a tenth so a remarkable performance by him. He’s back to his old self. You can see he is relaxed, he’s confident and he came into the weekend fully motivated after a tricky Austin coming back from injury. I thought he did a great job this weekend.” – the Red Bull mastermind was all praises for the Honey Badger.

WATCH THIS STORY: Fans Expose Max Verstappen’s Bizarre Reaction to Fernando Alonso’s Cold-Blooded Warning to Teammate Sergio Perez

With the walls closing in on Sergio Perez from all sides, will Daniel Ricciardo prevail? If Perez still has fight left in him, there are three races to go. While Horner and Helmut Marko have assured his security, it might all change with Red Bull Racing. You never know.