Even though Red Bull picked their back-to-back Constructors’ championships, it was not a good day for Sergio Perez. The Mexican driver picked up four penalty points in Japan which compelled the team to retire his car. This led to Helmut Marko not having such good thoughts about Perez even if he had praised the latter, believes F1 expert Robert Doornbos, as per Ziggo Sport Race Cafe.
The recent race at Suzuka saw the 33-year-old finish the race without points while his teammate Max Verstappen won the race and helped the team win the Constructors’ championship. Compared to him, Perez picked up four timed penalties after making contacts with Lewis Hamilton, Carlos Sainz, Fernando Alonso, and Kevin Magnussen one after another.
Saturday wasn’t our best, but tomorrow’s what counts. We’ll fight to be on the podium 💪
No fue un gran Sábado, pero mañana es lo importante. Pelearemos por estar en el podium 💪#SP11 pic.twitter.com/gkuNE2kKH1
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) September 23, 2023
Despite this, the Mexican star held on to his P2 in the Drivers’ championship. He has 223 points in his tally, 33 points more than Lewis Hamilton in P3. However, he is also 177 points adrift of Verstappen and is also one of the biggest in terms of the P1 and P2 gap.
Doornbos believes Marko had enough of Perez
Doornbos, the F1 expert who knows Marko from his days in motorsport believes that such mishaps despite having the dominant RB-19 underneath him aren’t something the Red Bull veteran looks for.
Talking about this, he said as per Ziggo Sport Race Cafe, “Pérez is clearly not doing so well. Helmut Marko is completely done with this. We still say he is a good racer if he qualifies poorly, but he doesn’t show that either.”
Red Bull secure their sixth Constructor’s Championship title 🏆
They’ve been unstoppable this season 👏 pic.twitter.com/BLeuKItHp5
— ESPN F1 (@ESPNF1) September 24, 2023
Admittedly, Perez recently shared his drawback against his teammate Max Verstappen and said why he wasn’t able to keep up with him. This is also regarded as the reason for his downfall.
Perez reveals his side of the story amid criticism
Sergio Perez has recently opened up on his drawback ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix. He said that he struggles with the balance of his car. Therefore, he gets an awful lot of performance drops due to this.
However, Verstappen on listening to this took a dig at him saying all the cars are equal. Furthermore, Marko has been critical of the Mexican driver’s performance throughout the season.
So much so that he was even reprimanded for his comments on the Red Bull driver. Nevertheless, Perez needs to step up his game and hold on to the P2 position in the driver’s championship to keep his hope of racing for Red Bull alive in the upcoming seasons.
