Sergio Perez endured a difficult run to eighth place on the road in the Belgian GP amid the ongoing internal debate at Red Bull over his Formula 1 future.
Perez has clearly been under pressure to raise his game after a disappointing recent run, and he did a good job to qualify third at Spa, before gaining a spot from the grid penalty taken by team mate Max Verstappen.
Prior to the race Red Bull’s simulations suggested that from second on the grid he could hang on to third place, while team mate Verstappen could climb to fifth from 11th.
The Mexican ran third initially behind Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc, but he slipped down to eighth at the flag before George Russell’s penalty gifted him a place.
Red Bull is having a meeting on Monday that could potentially lead to a reshuffle of the drivers across its two teams for the rest of the season and heading into 2025, with some VCARB filming day and TPC car running at Imola this week potentially having an impact.
Reserve driver Liam Lawson and F2 championship leader Isack Hadjar are both waiting in the wings, while Daniel Ricciardo has some momentum behind him.
It was clear after the race that much more was expected of Perez at Spa.
“Starting on the front row our objective pre-race was we felt that third and fifth would be achievable,” said team boss Christian Horner.
“We achieved the fifth [with Verstappen], but we didn’t achieve the third. We obviously need to go through the data to understand where his loss of pace was. I think that based on his starting position we didn’t envisage finishing eighth from second on the grid.
“Checo’s had a tough run over the last few races. And what’s so confusing for us is the season started so well for him, and then has tailed off.
“He did a great job, a super job in qualifying yesterday. Obviously, we need to go through and understand the issues in the in the race. We’ve got the time to do that and analyse that and work with him.”
However he downplayed the significance of the timing of Monday’s discussion: “We’re constantly analysing, constantly looking at things. We’ve got a meeting tomorrow, but it’s not just about Checo. We have other topics on the agenda as well, which we always do going into the summer break.”
Perez explained that his race was compromised by PU issues that cost him performance, and by a short middle stint, with his early pit stop clearing the way for pursuer Verstappen.
“I was just struggling a lot on the straights,” he said. “I don’t know what was going on, but I had to save battery early on in the first couple of laps. And I was just very weak on the straights.
“And once I managed to clear it, charge the pack a bit, I was pretty much the same as Lewis and Charles, I was staying there. But then the second stint, jumping onto the medium tyre with all the traffic behind, it just made it really, really difficult, very tricky, and we did quite a short stint as well.
“So yeah, we were just out of sync. I think we were just not good with the tyres today. Balance wasn’t there as well. So yeah, plenty of things to analyse on our side.”
“I think there were some strategic reasons behind it, but I don’t know why we went so short. I think we were obviously very compromised by having just two sets of mediums.
“So again, I think strategically, it wasn’t a perfect execution. It’s something that we will get together as a team and obviously understand.”
Perez insisted that one poor race will not decide his future.
“Yesterday I had a good qualifying, a good day,” he said. “It doesn’t change anything. I think we have too much going on in the team, a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation surrounding.
“So this is the last time I will speak about the future. Just to make it clear for everyone, I will not answer any more questions about my future.”
Adam Cooper F1 