Mexico City Grand Prix: Questions on Sergio Perez's future as he fights Lewis Hamilton
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Perez's Turn One crash made him the first retirement of what was his home race
Sergio Perez was caught between defiance and regret after the Mexico City Grand Prix, much as he has been for a large part of this Formula 1 season.
Defiant because, he insisted, he was absolutely right to try for a risky move around the outside of his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc in a bold attempt to grab the lead at the first corner. Regret because the move did not come off. He collided with Leclerc, and his home race was over after just one lap.
Defiance in the big picture, because Perez continues to insist the "results will come", even as they continue not to.
Regret because a brief but illusory appearance of a challenge to Verstappen for the title has degenerated into a downward spiral out of which Perez seems incapable of dragging himself. And that has led to increasing pressure as questions swirl about his future at the team.
How it all went wrong
Until he turned his Red Bull into Leclerc's Ferrari at Turn One, Perez's home race had been going well. His pace was more than respectable - a lap just 0.19 seconds off Verstappen in qualifying put him fifth on the grid, just two places down on the world champion - and his getaway was electric.
Perez generates something close to fervour among the Mexican fans, and on Sunday 135,000 had turned up to cheer him on, many crammed into the Foro Sol baseball stadium which hosts the fiddly final part of the lap.
Only the most optimistic of them will have been expecting a home win - Verstappen has been so dominant for so long that the prospect of Perez beating him seems remote in the extreme, no matter how close he might be on the grid.
They stuck around to the end, despite Perez's retirement, to have the chance, it seemed, to boo Leclerc for his involvement in the collision.
In truth, Leclerc was blameless, and everyone who was not a fan of Perez knew it. Even Perez couldn't bring himself to blame the Ferrari driver.
"The gap was there," Perez said. "I tried to go for the win at my home grand prix. What else could I have done? I went for the gap. I risked it too much, but I wanted the win today.
"I just wanted to give it all, went for it totally. To end the race on the first lap at your home grand prix is definitely really sad. On the other hand, I'm extremely proud of myself because I gave it my all."
Standing in the cool-down room before the podium ceremony, Lewis Hamilton watched the first-corner crash and knew immediately who was to blame.
"Where's he going?" Hamilton said as Perez turned in, with Leclerc and Verstappen packed tight on his inside. A swear word. "He did me in Qatar," Hamilton said.
That was a reference to Hamilton's own similarly ill-judged move three races ago, when he collided with his team-mate George Russell at the first corner, also turning in too tight from the outside line. After that race, Hamilton accepted total blame.
As for Verstappen, he was as polite as he could be, but he, too, could not miss the obvious.
"I understand," Verstappen said, "because it's his home grand prix, he wants to be on the podium and I fully understand he went around the outside and tried.
"Looking at the footage, he could have left a little bit more space. But if it would have worked, you look amazing. It was more the excitement of trying to get on the podium. This time it didn't work out, unfortunately."
For Perez, it not working out has become the theme of his season, and it has brought with it unwanted pressure, because at Red Bull high performance is expected, and if it doesn't come, patience tends to be short.
Is Ricciardo back to his best?
The Ricciardo situation
Pressure came from another place in Mexico, too, and perhaps that was one of the ingredients in the mix in that first-corner crash.
Daniel Ricciardo was brought back into the Red Bull fold this year as reserve driver, following two disappointing seasons at McLaren which ended in the fan favourite being given the sack a year before his contract was due to expire.
And after 10 races, Ricciardo was back in a race seat with Red Bull's second team Alpha Tauri, because Red Bull team principal Christian Horner and co. had lost patience with what they viewed as Nyck De Vries' underperformance in his rookie season.
Ricciardo has not had the easiest of returns. He did respectably well in his first two races back, but then broke his hand in a crash in practice at his third, and missed the next five.
His comeback in Austin, the week before Mexico, was up and down. But in Mexico he was outstanding. Quick from the off, he qualified a stunning fourth, splitting the Red Bulls and just 0.1secs off Verstappen.
In the race, he was running a strong fifth and likely would have finished there had it not been for the red flag mid-race. Even so, seventh, challenging Russell's Mercedes hard for sixth on the last lap, was a highly accomplished day's work, and Horner was quick to acknowledge it.
"He fully endorsed the reason why we brought him back," Horner said. "I thought he was outstanding this weekend. Fighting a Mercedes with an Alpha Tauri. A great performance from him and he looked like the Daniel of old this weekend."
That is a reference to Ricciardo's previous spell at Red Bull, and obliquely to Perez as well.
The Australian partnered Verstappen in 2016, 2017 and 2018, and no team-mate of the Dutchman since has been anywhere near as regularly close to him as Ricciardo was in those years. Verstappen had established a clear edge by the end of that time, which was at least partly the reason why Ricciardo left despite the team wanting him to stay.
The context for Ricciardo's return this summer was lost on no-one. At the time, Perez was struggling. If Ricciardo could prove he had got his mojo back, then he would be an obvious option for Red Bull if Perez could not step it up.
In Mexico, that mojo was very much there, and if things carry on like this, the potential consequences for Perez are clear.
Perez made his Formula 1 debut with Sauber in 2011, before going on to race for McLaren and Force India/Racing Point before his switch to Red Bull
What next for Perez?
Publicly, Red Bull have been supportive of Perez. Nevertheless, Horner has been talking about their "need" for him to recover his form from earlier in the season. He has said they "know what Checo is capable of", the implication being he has too often not reached that bar. And he has talked about their desire to finish one-two in the drivers' championship, something the team have never achieved before.
With a car like this - in which Verstappen broke his own all-time record for wins in a season on Sunday, and which will go down in history as one of the greatest of all time - finishing runner-up should be a relatively easy task.
But Perez's crash on Sunday, coupled with an excellent second place for Hamilton in the Mercedes, has brought the gap between the two down to just 20 points with three grands prix and a sprint race to go.
Hamilton has narrowed Perez's advantage by 13 points in the past three races, despite being disqualified from the US Grand Prix in Austin a week ago, and crashing out of Qatar. So the jeopardy for Perez is clear.
"It's mostly dependent on Checo's weekends," Hamilton said. "They have the championship-winning car. He has just been unfortunate in some scenarios. I have lost quite a lot of points the last two races but he lost points today.
"Having lost the points last week, I didn't think I would be in shooting range. But after today, we will give it the best shot. It's not going to make a lot of difference to my life whether I come second or third. It is more important to get the team second in the constructors'. So that is what I am focused on. It's a bonus if we get second in the drivers'."
Will the outcome make a lot of difference to Perez?
Horner was understanding of Perez's error on Sunday. He was seen talking to him on the pit wall during the race and said he had given him a bit of a pep talk.
"It's a tough moment for him," Horner said. "In front of his home crowd, he was very emotional. I just said: 'Look, next race next week [in Brazil]. You were going for the lead of your home race. You wouldn't be a racing driver if you weren't going for it.'
"He would have been on the podium without a shadow of a doubt. It is a big loss for him."
Perez, too, insists he will get his year back on track. "We're back there," he said. "Our pace is there. We knew what was wrong [when performances tailed off through the summer]. The results will come. I'm not concerned by it. I'm more sad about it."
Horner, for his part, continues to insist he believes in Perez's quest to give the team the one-two they want in the championship.
"He has three races now to convert that second place," Horner said. "There's 20 points between him and Lewis. He has had some issues and misfortune but we still believe he can do it.
"He's a tough operator and that's why he's in the car. He'll brush himself down and turn it into motivation. He will have the full support of the team to achieve something we have never done before."
And if he can't, will he lose that support and his seat for next season, too?
"It's not as binary as that," Horner said. "You have to look at the circumstances and so on.
"Checo has an agreement with us for next year and it's our intention for him to be in the car in 2024. We will give him all the support we can to ensure he finishes second. But there is no prerequisite that if he doesn't finish second, you're out."