Sergio Perez had a tough few weeks with Red Bull when he struggled to maximize the full potential of the RB-19, especially in qualifying. These kickstarted rumors of himself being replaced by the team. Amidst these speculations, Perez recently shed light on how ruthless F1 can be, taking Alpine’s sacking of Otmar Szafnauer and Co. as an example.
Alpine F1 team has been heavily featured all over the news as of late. Firstly, a Ryan Reynolds-led consortium invested $219,000,000 in the team, which gave their fans a lot of hope. However, just a few weeks after that, they decided to part ways with their CEO Laurent Rossi, team principal Szafnauer, and several other key figures in the team.
Szafnauer joined Alpine in 2022 and was determined to take them to the top. However, he didn’t really end up getting a lot of time to prove his worth. Midway into this campaign, the bosses at Renault (Alpine’s principal owners) decided to part ways with the former Aston Martin chief. Now, Perez, who understands how brutal the sport can be, shared his thoughts on the matter in a recent interview.
F1 teams should give drivers and bosses more time
As reported by Planet F1, Perez feels that Szafnauer is a person who has a great amount of potential. Unfortunately, he did not get to show his worth in Enstone, something which Perez thinks is unfair.
“I think Otmar is great,” he said. “For any person in that position you’ve got to give them time. And I think Otmar lacked time to really show his potential. Which I know is huge because I’ve seen what he’s done in other teams with very limited budgets. And with not-so-limited budgets as well.”
BREAKING: Alpine Team Principal Otmar Szafnauer and Sporting Director Alan Permane to depart Alpine following the Belgian Grand Prix#F1 pic.twitter.com/idRxwoAK93
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 28, 2023
Perez worked under Szafnauer during his time at Silverstone, when the team was called Force India. Now at Red Bull, he finds himself under an immense amount of pressure, as the business end of the campaign approaches, and the onus lies on him to secure P2 in the championship.
Sergio Perez under pressure to secure P2
Currently, Perez is 125 points behind teammate Max Verstappen in the championship standings. When the season started, the Mexican driver looked fairly strong, winning two out of the opening four races. But since then, Verstappen has been leading what has thoroughly been a one-horse race.
Taking the huge gap between the two Red Bull drivers into account, it is safe to say that Perez has given up on his dream of winning a world championship, at least for now. However, he still has a lot to fight for this season, with several drivers breathing on his neck to snatch the P2 spot away.
The likes of Lewis Hamilton, Fernando Alonso, George Russell and Charles Leclerc and are all eyeing the P2 spot. If Perez doesn’t perform consistently and keep P2 he could disappoint the Red Bull hierarchy moving into the new season.
