The front-row qualification result on Saturday set Sergio Perez on the course for redemption before the summer break. A Belgian GP win was on the cards for the Mexican, but the race couldn’t have gone any worse for him. Starting from P2, Perez kept losing positions and eventually finished the race in P8. Despite an underwhelming performance, he is in a combative mood as his Red Bull seat comes under question.
Speaking after the race with F1TV, he said, “I don’t think I’ll be responding anymore to any future speculations. I’m here with the team fully committed. As a team, we have a lot of stuff to focus on to get ourselves ready for the second half of the season. I think I’ve had enough of these speculations. I’ve said everything I had to. So, it’s time to take a break and regroup with the team and get back to it.”
| Helmut Marko on Sergio Perez:
“That’s not what we expected from him.”
“He completely collapsed, especially in the last stint.”#F1 #BelgianGP pic.twitter.com/QEqH1ttDRt
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 28, 2024
The race started to get away from Perez right from the start. Not only did he fail to challenge Charles Leclerc to take the lead, but also ended up losing his place to Lewis Hamilton.
As the race progressed, he started to complain about low straight-line speed which seemingly stemmed from a problem with ERS deployment. Later, he was called in early for a second pit stop, which further ruined his chances of a better result.
What further jeopardizes his position is the supposed deadline he had to prove his worth to the team. Reports suggest the existence of a performance clause in his contract.
As per the clause, or the terms set by the team, Perez had until the summer break to impress the management. However, he failed to reduce the gap with his teammate Verstappen, who is now 146 points clear of the Mexican.
Christian Horner drops a cryptic message on Perez’s possible sacking
According to rumors, Perez needed to get the gap to Verstappen down to at least a hundred points before the summer break. As he has failed to achieve the same, the question that arises is whether he will remain at Red Bull when they get to the next round in Zandvoort.
Amid such speculations, Horner clarified Perez’s result in Spa wouldn’t make any difference. While that should come as a relief to Perez, what the Red Bull team principal said after that may not.
Horner said, “Today won’t impact anything with Checo. Obviously, we need both cars scoring. You can see McLaren has taken another six or seven points away, and we need to stop that and bounce back after the summer break. We need Checo up there. Yesterday’s qualifying was great, but unfortunately, it didn’t quite work out today.”
