Sergio Perez knew he was in for a long afternoon in Montreal, after a poor qualifying yielded just 12th on the grid. The Mexican opted to start on the hard compound tyre in a bid to overcut the midfield in the first stint, and coming home sixth he could have been satisfied with his recovery.
His race pace the last few races has been concerning, but the terrible performances in qualifying is just dumbfounding. The Red Bull has such a gap on the rest of field, shown by Max, that Checo should never be in danger of missing Q3 barring a crash or mechanical failure.
I know his seat is probably safe as long as Red Bull stays solidly ahead in the constructors, but if he keeps performing this poorly RBR has to at least look at potential options for next season.
Quite a swing the other way. A few races ago he was still fighting Max for the championship and seemed to have genuine pace. And now some people are jumping to the complete other extreme, wondering if his seat is in danger. That seems a bit too sensationalist to me, but he definitely needs some good races in order to turn this around. That car seems like a rocket ship, and he should be able to do better.
I'm also very concerned about Perez's lack of pace. I don't really think Red Bull have many better options available, and Perez is going through a bad patch. Maybe they could try to get Norris?
It must be mentally so rough, you start the year fresh, get some points, the other guy is just having a bit more luck, right? Then race after race it becomes clear that he can pull a few tenths here, a couple hundredths there, and you just, well, can't. Not every lap, at least, not while preserving your tyres, staying out of the barriers, stretching your fuel...
How do you go back to the track without facing the fact that you're competing for P2 in a P1 car?