Ricciardo – who in the races where a fair comparison could be made was 5-2 down to Tsunoda in qualifying last year, with an average deficit of 0.12sec – has not made a convincing case that he is out of his McLaren-era doldrums. His Jeddah race was ruined by a lengthy pit stop delay, but even so his pace was unremarkable and the late-race spin unfortunate.
Perez by contrast has done everything required of the driver in this role, by slotting himself behind Verstappen but ahead of all the rest at both races so far. In Jeddah his qualifying deficit to Verstappen was smaller than Ricciardo’s to Tsunoda’s. He’s not putting the Red Bull on the front row alongside Verstappen, but he’s making maximum use of the car’s superior race pace and racing well.
He got off to a similarly good start last year but it all began going wrong in Australia when he came into the weekend announcing his candidature for the world title, something which did not go down well with Verstappen. If he can avoid making such internal waves this time, just keep delivering the strong support drives, he will be going a long way towards getting another extension to his contract. And if Verstappen leaves and Perez is the incumbent, he has a head-start on whoever arrives to replace Max. It’s all very much to play for at this late-blooming stage of Perez’s career.