Sergio Pérez’s future at Red Bull is at serious risk after three and a half seasons together, in spite of the recently announced 2-year contract renewal.
The gap between the two Red Bull drivers is enormous: 137 points separate championship leader Max Verstappen and Pérez. The 34-year-old is now 6th in the Drivers’ Championship, and he could drop to 8th after the Hungarian GP this weekend.
The former Racing Point driver’s last F1 race win came more than a year ago in Azerbaijan, and the last of the four Grand Prix podiums he has achieved in the current season dates back to April, at the Chinese round. From Imola to Silverstone, he has bagged just 15 points.
It’s definitely not the kind of form that is going to keep him at the team.
The Milton Keynes-based squad has always been prompt in replacing drivers not up to their standards, featuring their infamous mid-season driver swaps. In 2016, Max Verstappen’s was promoted in place of Daniil Kvyat, winning on debut for the team in Barcelona.
In 2019, Pierre Gasly got sent back to Toro Rosso after the Hungarian Grand Prix, getting replaced by Alex Albon.
The Frenchman was asked at Silverstone for his opinion on the potential reasons behind Pérez’s underwhelming season so far, admitting he thinks the Mexican is just not comfortable in the car and can’t get it to work how he would like it to.
The 28-year-old believes the situation is quite different to his short spell at Red Bull, nonetheless.
“First of all, I think my situation was very different than Checo’s situation, but I think right now, he is under big pressure. I don’t really know what to say to be fair.
“He is a good driver, everybody knows it but he doesn’t seem to get his things together, whether it’s himself or coming from the team. I don’t know and can’t really comment on that.
“Ultimately, his problem at the moment is he doesn’t feel the car. Whenever you feel strong with a car you have, for whatever reason, an off weekend. Next weekend, you come back, you feel good, you put the strong laps in and you don’t even think about it.
“But he just doesn’t seem to be able to get the performance out of it, whether it’s coming from him or the team, I don’t know. There’s clearly something that is missing at the moment between the two,” Gasly concluded.
