F1 2023 - Round 9: Canada

Frank Bullitt

Perez also likes the car to behave in a different way to Max. Max likes the car on the nose with an unstable rear end, Perez is the opposite. I get the feeling that the setup has moved more for Max over Perez in the last few races, along with Max just being the better driver overall.

El_Duderino 09

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120735710#Comment_120735710

Yeah and that might be true. But people look for these mitigating factors when they want there to be a mitigation. Wasn't Vettel struggling with something similar back when he was being hammered by a rookie Leclerc? And what was the mitigating factor for Bottas? What kind of preferences did he have that weren't being fulfilled by the car? Nobody asked that question back then because most people didn't particularly like Bottas and they weren't looking for mitigation. He was just an average enough driver being beaten by his much faster teammate.

The same is ultimately true of Perez. He's just not a top driver. He's a no.2 driver, surrounded by much better drivers. The likes of alonso, Hamilton, leclerc, Norris, Sainz are probably all considerably faster than him. He's doing great to be as good as he is.

Frank Bullitt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120735786#Comment_120735786

Nail on the head really.

Perez is good, on his day. But not great, never was or will be. It is nice to see him win the few races he has and so on, but he needs luck to go in his way to get that. And RB will be very happy with this as well.

muckwarrior

Most drivers on the grid are capable of competing with the best "on their day". The difference with the top guys is they can maintain that level of performance week in week out.