Sergio Pérez is still the King in town

Mexican Sergio Pérez is in his 13th season in Formula 1 since his debut in 2011 with Sauber. He has 6 victories, including 5 on city circuits. As for pole positions, he has achieved 2, both on the same circuit, Jeddah.

Throughout his career, he has a total of 42 race weekends on city circuits. Just to remind you, these are circuits with walls nearby. Here’s the list: Monaco, Valencia, Singapore, Sochi, Baku, Miami, and Jeddah. We could argue for the inclusion of Montreal and Melbourne, but these circuits are considered semi-permanent circuits that have very different characteristics.

If we look at the numbers, out of the 29 podiums achieved by Checo, 34% were on city circuits. In 2016, his only podiums were achieved in Monaco and Baku, finishing in third place each time. In 2018, he returned to the top 3 only once during the season, again in Azerbaijan.

2020 will be the best season for the Mexican driver apart from Red Bull. He achieves 2 podium finishes, the first one in Istanbul where he finishes 2nd, and the other one in Sakhir for his first victory in F1, 9 years after joining the premier category of motorsport. At the end of the season, he finishes in 4th place in the driver standings.

Pérez at Red Bull: a fountain of youth

In mid-2020, Aston Martin announced the acquisition of Racing Point and its drivers: Vettel and Stroll. With no contract for the 2021 season, Sergio Perez is looking for a way out. The Mexican seems to demonstrate talent despite his age, and the Red Bull team, who has been vying for the world title for 6 years, decides to bet on experience by pairing Sergio Perez with Max Verstappen.

Perez’s record is actually very good against Max Verstappen on street circuits. They have been paired on nine circuits of this type so far, and Perez has marginally the better qualifying record, having been on pole position seven times out of eleven. Just as a reminder, the Mexican driver has only outperformed Verstappen once on permanent circuits, which was at Imola in 2021 where he placed 2nd ahead of his teammate in 3rd.

However, this statistic needs to be nuanced. In Singapore last year, Verstappen was on a lap that would have beaten Perez’s time, but he had to come into the pits because he didn’t have enough fuel on board to finish the lap and provide the required sample.

In Sochi in 2021, Verstappen had a grid penalty and therefore did not participate in qualifying, while in Monaco last year, Perez had an accident on his last lap of Q3, just as Verstappen was about to improve his time.

However, there were moments like in Jeddah where Perez was significantly quicker on a qualifying lap and was duly rewarded with the pole position. Perez was also in a position to win the race in Saudi Arabia last year, but he was the first of the leaders to make a pit stop and the safety car was deployed immediately afterwards, which dropped him down to fourth place.

Out of the seven times Perez was ranked ahead of Verstappen in a race, five of them took place on urban circuits: Baku last year, Monaco and Singapore in 2022, and this season: Jeddah and Baku.

Sergio Pérez even has a victory in Monaco on his GP2 resume, while his record in F1 proves that he surpasses the averages of his career on street circuits. So why is he so effective on these circuits?

In the past, Perez has stated that street circuits are circuits where it is the driver who can make the difference. Generally, these are circuits dominated by low-speed turns (with the exception of Jeddah) with very close walls that punish inaccuracy. Perez possesses several qualities that make him particularly skilled on these circuits.

As we extensively discussed last year, it is a driver who is more comfortable with a car that leans towards understeer, while Verstappen thrives with a sharper car that is potentially faster but requires great precision in the rotations.

Trust plays an important role in the rhythm of circuits, and it is clear that Perez thrives under these conditions. The memory of his pace in Jeddah last year was very good, and the frustration of being deprived of a potential victory due to the timing of the safety car, as well as his win in Singapore last September, allow him to approach weekends on urban circuits in a more serene manner.

All of Pérez’s victories in F1