Sergio Perez’s struggles ‘hurt’ - but how long are Red Bull willing to give him?

After enjoying his best qualifying performance since the Chinese Grand Prix in April, Sergio Perez had the perfect opportunity to ease some of the pressure heading into F1’s summer shutdown.

Starting alongside polesitter Charles Leclerc on the front row of the Belgian Grand Prix grid, and with teammate Max Verstappen down in 11th due to a penalty for exceeding his power unit allocation, it seemed like a golden chance for Perez to lay down an important reminder to Red Bull at a key moment in his season.

But Perez immediately lost out to Lewis Hamilton on the first lap and struggled for pace throughout as he slid backwards to an eighth-place finish on the road, three places behind his recovering teammate. Russell’s DSQ promoted Perez to seventh, but Red Bull team principal Christian Horner suggested a much better result was expected.

“Based on his starting position, we didn’t envisage finishing eighth,” Horner replied when asked by Crash.net if Red Bull were disappointed by Perez’s efforts in Belgium.

While Horner chose his words carefully in his best attempts to defend Perez, expressing that it “hurts” to see his ongoing struggles, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko was more blunt about the Mexican’s performance, concluding he “completely collapsed”.

Red Bull are set to hold a meeting today in which Perez’s future is set to be on the agenda. Horner moved to downplay its significance, stressing “it’s not just about Checo”.

But when pressed by Crash.net on how long Red Bull are willing to give Perez to turn things around, Horner largely side-stepped the question, responding: “I think that’s he’s acutely aware that we need both cars performing and which is what we had at the beginning of the year. And that’s where we need to get back to.”

Red Bull have now gone four races without a victory. McLaren’s recent resurgence has cut Red Bull’s once-healthy constructors’ championship lead down to 42 points going into the summer shutdown, while Mercedes have won three of the past four rounds.

Red Bull are feeling the pressure from their rivals at a time they no longer have the security net of boasting the outright fastest car. As such, the reigning world champions may soon be forced to make a decision which Horner insists “nobody wants to make”.

Who could replace Perez?

Rumours of a possible mid-season driver swap at Red Bull have only intensified in recent weeks.

A reported performance clause in Perez’s contract, signed only last month, is believed to give Red Bull the power to replace Perez if he fell more than 100 points behind Verstappen in the championship after Spa.

Perez has managed just 28 points across the last eight races and has subsequently slipped to seventh in the drivers’ championship, 146 points behind Verstappen, leaving him vulnerable to the apparent clause.

Such a change is not beyond the realms of possibility, given Red Bull have history here. Verstappen replaced Daniil Kvyat after just four races in 2016, while Alex Albon swapped seats with Pierre Gasly during the summer break in 2019.

If Red Bull opted to make a change, the obvious contenders to take Perez’s seat would either be Daniel Ricciardo or Yuki Tsunoda, who drive for Red Bull’s sister team RB, or reserve driver Liam Lawson.

The emergence of an F1 test at Imola involving Ricciardo and Lawson has only fuelled speculation surrounding Perez’s future further.

The pair will get behind the wheel of a 2024 RB car this week, but Horner was quick to reject any notion that the test is a ‘shootout’ to determine who will replace Perez.

“It’s a filming day, so they’ll be filming. It’s all about content,” Horner explained. “It is in the current car because you can do 200 km in the current car. So they’ll both be doing plenty of filming.”

Ricciardo has overcome an underwhelming start to campaign as he looks to boost his chances of securing a fairytale return to the Red Bull senior team and inherited a point in Belgium thanks to Russell’s disqualification.

Horner reckoned Ricciardo had “done alright” in recent rounds. “I haven’t looked at the race, I only saw the result that he was 11th [10th after Russell’s DSQ], and starting on the Soft tyre, he’s obviously doing a good race,” he added.

Horner continues to reiterate that Red Bull’s “priority” is to support Perez, but it remains to be seen how long the team’s patience can last while being put under intense pressure from the chasing pack.