Red Bull had a weekend to forget in Australia after Max Verstappen’s DNF and Sergio Perez’s failed charge for the podium. Verstappen’s RB20 suffered a brake issue that jeopardized his race and suddenly all the eyes were on Perez. With his teammate out, this was a golden chance for the Mexican driver to make amends and grab a podium. However, he could only manage a disappointing P5, for which Christian Horner interestingly defended him instead of criticizing him.
Perez was relatively slower than the top four comprising Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris, and Oscar Piastri. Therefore, he was in a different race with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso. The #11 driver had multiple wheel-to-wheel tussles with the Spanish driver and in doing so, he suffered critical damage to his floor.
Horner defending him, pointed out at the damaged floor as the exact reason for Perez to fall behind. The Red Bull boss told Sky Sports as per RBR News, “He’s probably not aware of it, but he picked up a bit of damage as soon as he got past Fernando. He lost a significant amount of downforce from the floor of the car. Then as soon as you get that then your tyre deg just gets worse and it was not good at the end of the stint.”
The 34-year-old driver had a decent outing on Saturday where he claimed P3 in qualifying behind pole-sitter Max Verstappen and P2 Carlos Sainz. However, the stewards penalized him for impeding Nico Hulkenberg and demoted him to P6 on the grid.
Despite that, fans and experts expected Checo to finish the race better than P5. Given that he had the RB20 rocketship underneath him and Verstappen had a DNF, if not a race win, a podium was expected of him.
Can Sergio Perez extend his stay at Red Bull next year?
Sergio Perez is already auditioning for the Red Bull seat next year willingly or unwillingly. The Red Bull driver’s contract runs out at the end of 2024 and only a miracle would keep him in the team after an underwhelming season in 2023.
Perez dug his own grave last year after he declared himself as the championship contender against Max Verstappen. The Mexican driver won two of the first four races and this boosted his confidence, to say the least.
However, things took a nosedive from Monaco onwards, when Perez failed to continue his momentum and fell drastically behind his teammate. So much so, that he came to a point where he was almost on the verge of losing his seat. Nonetheless, he pulled himself back up to continue the season and finished in P2 in the Drivers’ championship.
Perez began his 2024 season alongside Verstappen well and has been performing formidably. So far, he doesn’t have any immediate threat from anyone as Ricciardo and Tsunoda need to up their game for a Red Bull chance.
