In the end, the writing was on the wall for Sergio Pérez.
“Obviously the benchmark is always your teammate,” Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said in Abu Dhabi. “And the car has won nine races with Max [Verstappen] at the wheel.”
It was a cutting remark immediately after the latest — and ultimately last — forgetful Sunday for a driver, without a victory all season, who had become a shell of what he once was. Pérez and the team announced their split on Wednesday.
Draining of confidence, the incapability of delivering in a car that seems to suit Verstappen’s style so seamlessly, competing next to competing alongside Formula 1‘s next all-time great: These are struggles even those who came before Pérez — a proven race winner in Daniel Ricciardo and touted juniors in Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon — know all too well as sidekicks to Verstappen at Red Bull.
Why would team renowned for its driver academy continue to grind down its stars? A potential answer came from Horner: “Max is the hardest teammate in the world to have.”
For the quadruple world champion’s eight-plus years in Red Bull colours, that has been abundantly clear as spelled out in this timeline of the poisoned chalice that is the role of Verstappen’s teammate.
Daniel Ricciardo | Verstappen’s teammate 2016-18
Head-to-head qualifying record vs. Verstappen: 24-34
Head-to-head race record vs. Verstappen: 21-35
May 15, 2016: While Ricciardo was undoubtedly top dog at Red Bull to start 2016, the devastating Verstappen era would start on this sunny Sunday in Spain. Verstappen, just 17 years old and debuting in the car after being thrust from the junior team to replace Daniil Kvyat, won the Spanish Grand Prix in spectacular fashion.
Ricciardo, whose reputation was still sky high after beating teammate and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel two years earlier, was not threatened just yet, but the sheer magnitude of Verstappen’s achievement meant it was clear that Red Bull suddenly had two bonafide No. 1 drivers. Teams rarely get through the resulting intra-team politics of such situations unscathed.
July 30, 2017: Verstappen and Ricciardo had already had on-track skirmishes before 2017’s Hungarian GP rolled around, the pair fighting fiercely but respectfully on multiple occasions, but Budapest proved, for the first time, that some frustration was building.
“Was that who I think it was?” Ricciardo asked on team radio after being crashed out of the race by…
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