Perez’s future at Red Bull F1 uncertain after missing Spa target
Perez’s future at Red Bull F1 uncertain after missing Spa target
Perez needed a good race at Spa before F1’s summer break
Sergio Perez finished a tough eighth at the Belgian Grand Prix amid ongoing internal discussions at Red Bull about his future in F1.
Perez is clearly under pressure to perform better after some recent disappointing races, and qualified third at Spa before teammate Max Verstappen qualified thanks to collecting a grid penalty. Pre-race Red Bull simulations predicted he could start from second on the grid and hold on to third, with team-mate Verstappen able to move up from 11th to fifth. The Mexican driver initially ran third behind Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc but dropped to eighth at the finish before moving up a place following George Russell’s penalty. Red Bull will hold a meeting on Monday that could potentially lead to driver reshuffles at the two teams for the remainder of the season and into 2025, with some VCARB filming and the TPC car launch at Imola this week likely to have an impact. Reserve driver Liam Lawson and F2 championship leader Isak Hajjar are both waiting in the wings, while Daniel Ricciardo has already kicked into high gear. After the race, it became clear that more things were expected in spas.
“It is estimated that the third and fifth are achieved from the first line, the goal of the spare race,” said the Christian Horner team team. “We got to fifth [with Verstappen], but we didn’t get to third. Obviously we have to look at the data to see where he lost his momentum. I think based on his starting position we didn’t expect him to finish eighth from second on the grid.
“Checo has had a tough time in the last few races. What puzzles us is that his season started so well and then it ended like that.
“He did a great job, he did a great job in qualifying yesterday. Obviously, we have to pass and understand the problems of the race. We have time to do it and analyze this and work with it. »»
However, he knew the sense of discussion on Monday: “We are constantly analyzing, we are constantly looking at things. “We have a meeting tomorrow, but it’s not just about Checo, there are other agendas and we always talk about them before the summer break.” Perez explained that his race was compromised by a loss of performance caused by PU problems and a short middle stint when an early pit stop gave him the way to chase Verstappen. “I really struggled on the straights,” he said. “I don’t know what happened, but from the start, the first few laps, I had to save the battery. And I was just very weak on the straights.
“And once I managed to get him clear, attack the crowd a little bit, I was pretty much the same as Lewis and Charles, I stayed there. But then in the second stint when we went to the medium tyres with a lot of cars behind us it made everything very, very difficult, very difficult, and we also had a pretty short stint.
“So yeah, we just weren’t in sync. I think I was not good at tires today. There was no balance. So yeah, we have a lot to analyze. “I think there was a strategic reason behind it, but I don’t know why we didn’t put in as much effort. I think having only two sets of mids was obviously very compromising. “So, again, I think strategically it wasn’t a perfect execution. This is something we put in place as a team and of course we will understand it. “Perez insisted that one bad race does not define your future. “I had a good qualifying yesterday, it was a good day,” he said. “I wouldn’t change anything. There is too much going on in our team and too many things we need to focus on to waste energy on speculation around it. So this is the last time I’m going to talk about the future. To make it clear to everyone, I will no longer answer questions about my future.
