Stay informed about the most important Formula One stories. sign up here to receive the Prime Tire newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.
SILVERSTONE, UK — Stuck in the gravel at Copse early in Q1 after going off track on his out lap, Sergio Perez looked helpless.
His plea for help to get back to the nearby track and possibly rejoin the session proved futile. With seven minutes remaining in the session, the error saw him drop out of Q1, meaning he will start tomorrow’s British Grand Prix in 19th position.
And with pressure mounting on Perez at Red Bull, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
McLaren’s surge through the first half of the Formula 1 season has transformed the competitive landscape at the front of the grid. Red Bull, for so long unchallenged on the front row, now faces pressure from the crowd to take pole positions and wins. Team principal Christian Horner has always called 2023, when it won 21 of 22 races, a “unicorn year”. It is now a distant memory.
Max Verstappen’s dominance, with 575 points earned, was such last year that he could have won the constructors’ championship on his own. Perez’s mid-season performance slump and failure to win a race after round four in Azerbaijan did not have a material effect on the team’s year. Still, he finished second in the drivers’ championship with 285 points, capping the most successful season in Red Bull Racing’s history.
Now the picture looks very different.
Perez came into 2024 knowing he had to improve his performance and he seemed to have done just that. He took four podiums from the first five races, praising a new approach that saw him mess less with car set-up and seem less focused on trying to replicate what Verstappen was doing in the garage.
GO DEEPER
How Perez fell so far behind Verstappen: loss of confidence and a question of style
The performances led Red Bull to extend Perez’s contract on a two-year basis, announced after Monaco. He is well liked in the team and was giving what he needed to give on track. It made sense.
But since Miami, Perez’s performances have not been up to that level of earlier in the year. He has made it to Q3 just twice in the last five races, retiring in Monaco (due to a collision with Kevin Magnussen, which could have been avoided had he not retired in Q1) and Canada, and failing to finish higher than seventh in that time.
Perez’s slump coincides with McLaren’s best form, with Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri regularly scoring big points. The 115-point gap after Miami was reduced to 87 points, with Red Bull outpacing McLaren just once in that five-race period.
This has fuelled McLaren’s hopes of making a run at the constructors’ fight, mainly because they have two regular top scorers in Norris and Piastri to Red Bull’s one. Since Miami, Norris has 73 points and Piastri 71. Perez’s haul is 15 points.
“In the end it will all come down to Perez,” said McLaren Racing chief executive Zak Brown. “You have to assume that Max is going to be first, second or third in every race (for) the rest of the year, probably more firsts than thirds. Sergio’s poor form is what is opening the window for us.”
Brown added: “I would be, and I’m sure they would be, very concerned about the lack of performance.”
The situation has not gone unnoticed by Red Bull, who have always supported Perez through his difficult periods. Speaking to Sky Sports on Friday, Horner acknowledged it had been a “difficult period” for Perez and praised his resilience. The hope was that the signing and contract announcement would help provide stability and halt the slide in form.
“It made perfect sense to hire Checo at that time,” Horner said. “But this is a business where there is pressure to meet targets.”
He added: “We need him up there supporting Max because now there are two McLarens, two Ferraris, two Mercedes. And we desperately need there to be two Red Bulls.”
Sergio Perez went off the track and into the gravel during qualifying. (Peter Fox/Formula 1 via Getty Images)
The mistake made on Saturday at Silverstone did nothing to help Perez’s cause or his efforts to improve the situation. Going off track on his out lap after switching to slick tyres, where conditions were greasy but should have been manageable at a lower speed, was a very clumsy mistake.
“I put my hand up because I screwed up today,” said Perez, explaining how a downshift in the greasy conditions entering Copse caused him to lose the rear end. But he denied pressure had contributed to the error.
“I am fully committed to my career,” Perez said. “I have a contract with the team and I am going to change things. It is not something that distracts me or anything like that.”
Perez may be under contract, but Red Bull has shown in the past that it is not averse to making tough, even brutal, decisions about drivers midway through a season. Verstappen got his chance just four races into the 2016 season, swapping seats with Daniil Kvyat at Toro Rosso’s sister team, now RB. Alex Albon and Pierre Gasly made the same switch in 2019. Last year, Nyck de Vries was dropped by AlphaTauri after Silverstone so that Daniel Ricciardo could return.
Red Bull’s driver contracts have always covered both of its F1 teams, meaning there is scope for such changes and, as a result, added pressure on the main team members. Complicating the situation for Red Bull is that there is no solid reason for anyone to take Perez’s place and be confident of the necessary improvement in results.
Ricciardo faces pressure to stay at RB following comments from Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko ahead of Austria. Red Bull always intended Ricciardo to be a safety net upon returning to the grid last year to replace De Vries, making it clear that returning to Red Bull was the aim. But the performances just haven’t been there, finishing as high as eighth on a Sunday. Ricciardo has looked more consistent over the last three races, but if he does get that chance to return to Red Bull, his current performance level would be more akin to being a Perez-like replacement.
Yuki Tsunoda’s performances earlier this year prompted Red Bull to quickly organise a new contract for him to stay at RB and announce it in Canada. However, as impressive as his speed may be, those at the top remain uncertain as to how he will fare in the main team.
Reserve driver Liam Lawson has just five races under his belt since replacing the injured Ricciardo last year, but his form made it clear that he would be part of Red Bull’s future. He is due to do a filming day for Red Bull at Silverstone next week and take part in a tyre test with RB at Imola in a few weeks’ time, which is his last chance to show what he can do in an F1 car.
This has left Red Bull in a difficult position. The team urgently needs a performance turnaround from Perez before the situation becomes unsustainable. The Mexican is under no illusions about what needs to change. He has been in this situation many times before.
But the longer this run continues, the closer McLaren, which always scores points with two cars, can get to Red Bull. The pressure will only increase on Perez and those at the top of Red Bull to consider taking action.
Today’s mistake will only further increase that pressure.
GO DEEPER
In F1’s toughest seat, Sergio Perez finds purpose off the grid
Top photo: SIPA USA
