Perez? Red Bull is slowly running out of arguments

It’s a never-ending story that probably won’t have a happy ending. Because most experts are convinced that the Mexican Sergio Peréz (33)’s time at Red Bull as a teammate of Max Verstappen (26), who has been three-time world champion since last Saturday, will soon be over.

Reason: Chronic poor form. While the Dutchman Verstappen races from victory to victory and record to record in Formula 1, Peréz has not been able to even come close to keeping up for months now.

In fact: Peréz’s record in the same car that Verstappen makes fly almost every race weekend reads like an indictment. In qualifying in Qatar, which Verstappen won, Peréz once again failed to finish in the top ten. In the sprint on Saturday he didn’t see the checkered flag after an accident (through no fault of his own) in midfield. In the main race on Sunday, which (who else?) Verstappen won, he came tenth after receiving three penalties for exceeding the track limits – a total of 15 penalty seconds.

“Peréz has had a shocking race,” were the almost perplexed words of team boss Christian Horner. “It was a missed opportunity to really consolidate second place in the World Championship,” said his team boss angrily.

Because Red Bull, which has already won the drivers’ and constructors’ titles early, wants total triumph. For that, Peréz would have to become runner-up world champion. He is still 30 points ahead of Mercedes superstar Lewis Hamilton, who fortunately for the Mexican remained pointless on Sunday after a collision with his teammate George Russell shortly after the start. But the trend is what matters for Horner. In the last three races in Singapore, Japan and Qatar, Peréz only scored five points. For comparison: Verstappen bagged 69 World Cup points in the same period.

Red Bull will be at an impasse with Peréz after the race in Qatar at the latest.

That’s why Horner, whose patience with his problem driver seems to be slowly running out, publicly criticizes the Mexican: “Sergio urgently needs to regain the form he showed at the beginning of the season.”

Horner’s words are reminiscent of the desperate sentences from the earlier McLaren-Mercedes days, when their team bosses wanted to gloss over bad results, especially for the German press: “But we had the fastest pit stops.”

Alone: ​​Red Bull chief advisor Dr. Helmut Marko (still) sticks with the Mexican. “I repeat myself,” said the 80-year-old SPORT1, “but Peréz has a contract that we want to respect. We’re doing everything we can to get him back on track.” But Marko is honest: “We don’t have any alternatives. Otherwise he might have a problem.”

What the Austrian means: If the two McLaren youngsters Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were on the market, Peréz would definitely lose his seat for next year despite the contract. But both the Brit Norris and the Australian Piastri are tied to the traditional racing team in the long term. And even with the two super talents there are doubts.

Reason, says Marko: “At the moment I only see one person who could come close to keeping up with Max: Fernando Alonso.” But, as we also know at Red Bull, Alonso, already getting on in years at 42, will be his last mission at Aston Martin finish.

So could Verstappen be the solution as a development coach for his teammate? In any case, the Dutchman’s image is rising to unimagined heights. Former world champion Nico Rosberg made sure of that. “Maybe it’s Max who makes the difference and not just the car. Because you can see where Peréz is driving around with the Red Bull,” assumed Rosberg in his situation analysis in Qatar Sky.

“No. “Max won’t help him,” adds Marko SPORT1 In the meantime, we put a brief stop to all Peréz fans who had the hope that the victorious Dutchman could support his teammate. He doesn’t want to go into the reasons.

She found out SPORT1 from the Verstappen camp. The Dutchman, who enjoys superstar status especially in his homeland and still makes time for conversations with particularly young fans or contemporaries whom he simply finds nice beyond all importance, becomes Mister Merciless with Peréz. Background: Verstappen hates the politics that the Peréz clan – led by the Mexican’s father and his great sponsor and compatriot, billionaire Carlos Slim – is doing behind the Red Bull scenes, especially against Marko.

This even goes so far that he regularly inquires about the distance to his teammate. If they are too low, he increases the speed again in order to finally wear down Peréz. With success.

Ex-formula star Ralf Schumacher therefore only sees one solution for Red Bull SPORT1 he explains the scenario that makes the most sense for him: “It speaks for Marko and Red Bull that they respect Peréz’s contract. But I am firmly convinced that they will replace him with Daniel Ricciardo at the beginning of next season if he continues like this. And unfortunately, I think so.”