Painful championship statistic highlights magnitude of Perez's downfall

Sergio Perez has struggled during the 2024 Formula 1 season. Even by his own admission, the season has been terrible for the Red Bull driver. Max Verstappen has a chance to be crowned champion at the upcoming Las Vegas Grand Prix, but his teammate sits in eighth place. That's last out of the top four teams. However, a statistic makes Perez's season even more painful.

The RB20 is not as strong as the RB19. Verstappen is also struggling with the car, which often has balance issues. With Perez, the problems are even more apparent: since the Chinese Grand Prix, the fifth Grand Prix of the season, the Mexican has not been on the podium.

The championship standings also show that Perez's performance has gone downhill. Where he was second at the start of the season, he has now dropped to eighth in the championship. Here, he is 39 points behind seventh-placed Lewis Hamilton, who just had to make do with a weaker car at the beginning of the season.

Of the top teams, Perez is the driver ranked lowest. The Mexican has scored 151 points in 2024, while Verstappen scored 393. That is a difference of 242 points. This therefore means that Perez is closer to Guanyu Zhou, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant, than to his own teammate. All three drivers have yet to score any points this season, making the season even more painful for Perez.