Borrowing a post from Nemo1965 for a moment:
I find it quite interesting that Perez is AND much closer to Verstappen this year and, at the same time, Max just seems to treat his tires different (i.e: better) in 2022. Perhaps the sample is too small, but I was rather amazed how in Barcelona Verstappen just blitzed Perez on race-pace (and on tire-deg, I think), and now in Baku he really blitzed Perez (very definitely on tire-management). I would be very interested in an analysis by either Peter Windsor or Scott Mansell (Driver61, Youtube) that would compare their driving styles. I was amazed how Verstappen and Leclerc were basically pestering each other and Perez STILL could not create distance between him and the two. And in the rest of the race... oh boy. And Perez admitted himself Max did a better job in that regard today.
So... the cars this year are heavier... more understeering... less pointy... what does Perez do that makes him closer to Verstappen than last year but still gives him more tire-deg (as it seems now)?
Confused....
There's been a sort of general mood that Sergio Perez has upped his game in 2022 -- certainly he's been leading more races, and qualifying higher up the grid and more consistently than last year. In the races, Perez is normally on the podium unless something goes wrong, but a couple of recent races (Baku, Spain) have seen a pretty competitive Red Bull fight end with Verstappen blowing him away as the race develops.
We've all heard the system the Red Bull pitwall has when Max gets into his race rhythm and Sergio is in the way, but team orders alone don't explain why Max ends up 10-20 seconds down the road having hit the front.
What's Perez doing differently this year? How has Max retained his advantage? Does this say anything about how the championship fight with Ferrari (if they stop blowing up) will develop? Does it say anything about the Red Bull car concept for 2022? It's worth a thread I guess.