Curse of the second seat

First it was Daniel Ricciardo, then Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, and now it is Sergio Perez.

Red Bull have a second seat problem that borders on the supernatural, and it continues to put the team in vulnerable positions.

“Checo” qualified eighth at Catalunya and finished fifth, but if Red Bull are to compete against the Silver Arrows to maximum effect, the Mexican needs to be up among the front-runners.

Mercedes got away with their strategy this weekend because the second Red Bull posed no threat to their plans, and in effect Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas were racing only against Verstappen.

The pressure is on Perez to get up to speed immediately – he admitted as much after this race – and give all of Red Bull a fighting chance, otherwise the narrative of the season will follow the same script as it did last weekend.