In qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix, Verstappen once again showed what he was capable of unlike any other driver in the paddock, with his final lap time of 1:04.314, which is expected to be the fastest lap record at the Red Bull Ring since F1 entered the ground era, and one that leaves no driver in the dust.
Pérez, meanwhile, in the same car, managed to run a time of 1:05.202, a full 0.888 seconds slower than Verstappen, the Red Bull Ring is the second shortest track in the calendar after Monte Carlo, and it is also the least time-consuming track, and on such a track dominated by big straights, the Mexican is actually 0.888 seconds slower than his teammates, which would be 1.38% if converted into a percentage, which is a considerable difference.
So what is it that causes the Mexicans to fall behind their teammates by such a wide margin? In his post-race interview, Pérez blamed the poor performance on the old soft tyres, which were degrading faster than he expected, as he ran one more lap than Verstappen in Q2 because of the insecurity of the provisional standings, which was still not fast enough.
As can be seen from the GPS data of the fastest lap in Q3 for the two, Pérez was only faster than Verstappen at turns 1, 3 and 4 and early on the big straight, and he was slower than his team-mate for most of the course.
And as you can see from the rhythm of the entry and exit of each corner, as well as the throttle and brake stroke, in almost all corners, Pérez brakes earlier before entering the corner, and accelerates later after the corner, and the most curious thing is that he is slower than Verstappen on all the straights, and the straights don't seem to have much to do with the degradation of the tires.
If he was slower than his teammates in the corners because he couldn't get enough confidence from an old set of soft tyres, what does it mean that he was also slow on the straights? In addition, judging from the results of the first flying lap in Q1 qualifying, both of them were also equipped with old soft tires, but Pérez was still 1.078 seconds slower than his teammates, and Verstappen could still run under 1:04.5 with a set of old soft tires.
Among the big four teams, he has already trailed the six drivers of the other three teams in qualifying for several races in a row, in other words, among these six drivers, any driver who can be picked into his RB20 will be faster than him, although RB20 is no longer as dominant as it was at the beginning of the season, but why is it difficult for Pérez to return to the performance he had at the beginning of the season? I think the most important thing to figure out at the moment is himself, but the team's patience is always limited, and although he has signed a two-year contract extension with the team, that doesn't mean he can stick with his current form until the end of the season.