Why Sergio Perez's Red Bull reprieve was such a surprise

The weekend was branded “a total disaster” by Perez but due to a similarly calamitous race for Ferrari — who was occupying second in the constructors’ championship at the time — Red Bull’s advantage in the constructors’ standings actually increased, courtesy of a Verstappen victory.

Although disappointed by the result, Horner again backed his driver. “You see this with Checo time and time again, you think he’s on the ropes and then he bounces back,” he said. “He’s a tough racer, a tough character. It hurts him more than anyone else and he’ll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he’s capable of and the form he showed in the first four races of the year.

In an attempt to explain his poor weekend-long performance, Perez had stated that a lack of rear grip was to blame as he struggled with the rear axle. But Marko was far from convinced. “It’s not the car, you can see that with Max,” he told ServusTV. “I think it’s more psychological. When the conditions change, he finds it much more difficult. But the fact that it’s already the third time [he’s missed Q3] is painful.”

2024 Spanish Grand Prix

Perez points scored: 4

Red Bull’s positive tone remained at the following round in Spain, even when Perez started from 11th after a grid penalty — which was given to him for returning to the circuit dangerously in Canada following his crash — and climbed to eighth, finishing almost a minute behind his race-winning team-mate.

With all three driver pairings from McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari finishing above the Mexican, a little more urgency could be heard in Horner’s post-race interviews — although he remained supportive of his driver.

“We need Checo [Perez] in the mix,” the team principal said. “He knows that and the team know that. If he’s on the back end of the top eight, you lose strategic options, whether you split your strategies and so on. Checo in the first four or five races this year was fantastic. We just need to get him back into that headspace.

“Before the race, our simulations said P8 was the optimum from 11th on the grid, so he achieved that today, he did it on a three-stop strategy. I think, and I hope that, he will take quite a bit of confidence out of that race and hopefully take that into the next couple of weekends, which are big weekends for him.”

2024 Austrian Grand Prix 

Perez points scored: 7

A sprint race weekend at the Red Bull Ring – an historically strong circuit for the Milton Keynes outfit, which has won on its home turf on four separate occasions — offered Perez a brilliant chance to regain some ground, both in the championship standings and with his team boss.

But while his team-mate raced for ultimate victory across the weekend, Perez’s struggles continued with another set of disappointing results: starting seventh and finish eighth in the sprint before starting eighth and finishing seventh in the Grand Prix.

His poor performance also highlighted how Red Bull can struggle to count on him when Verstappen isn’t racing away at the front. When the Dutchman had a puncture after clashing with Lando Norris while battling for the lead in the closing stages of the Grand Prix, the team would have wanted Perez to be in place to inherit victory. Instead, he finished 54 seconds behind the winning Mercedes of George Russell and was even passed on the final lap by Nico Hülkenberg‘s Haas.

Unable to explain the deficit between his two drivers, Horner once again aired his concerns while also hinting, for the first time, that Perez’s contract could be at risk.

“We’re doing our best to find out what is missing, because the first four or five races were very competitive and whatever has happened to cause him to drop off,” Horner said. “In Suzuka, one of the toughest tracks in the world and a real driver’s circuit, he was a tenth of a second off Max. Here with nine corners the gap is significantly greater.

“I think that Checo’s position within the team and what he has contributed to the team has warranted that [new contract],” he added. “But of course there is always pressure to perform – and that is irrelevant of contracts which we are obviously never going to go into the detail of.”

2024 British Grand Prix

Perez points scored: 0

Perez had a disappointing performance at Silverstone in 2023 when he qualified 15th and finished sixth. He struggled again in 2024, as he failed to reach Q2 for the fourth time in 12 races after spinning off the circuit in Q1. Helmut Marko was somewhat empathetic toward Perez, given that he had been among the first cars to tour the damp circuit on slick tyres. Perez ultimately started the race from the pitlane after his RB20 was given a new engine and power unit elements.

Chaotic weather and numerous strategy mistakes meant that Perez had little chance to climb through the field on race day and he finished the British Grand Prix where he started it in 17th, resulting in another pointless weekend. Horner began to ramp up the pressure but, still, in a supportive tone.

“[Pérez] knows it’s unsustainable to not be scoring points – we have to be scoring points in that car, and he knows that,” said Horner. “He knows his role and his target, so nobody is more eager than Checo to find his form again.

“It’s something we’re acutely aware of, that to win the constructors’ championship you need both cars scoring.”

As in Canada, Red Bull was let off the hook once again in its bid to retain a commanding margin in the constructors’ standings, as a win for Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton and a second-place finish for Verstappen meant that its advantage once again grew, although McLaren and Mercedes were catching up.

2024 Hungarian Grand Prix

Perez points scored: 6

Hungary was where Perez’s from looked to have shifted from troublesome to crisis mode. A crash in Q1 not only prompted a troubled look from Horner on the pitwall but also left him 16th on the grid.

“It cannot happen again,” Perez said after the crash. “But at the same time, it makes me more determined to get back to my form, to get back with this team and basically head down and obviously learn from these mistakes that have happened one after the other and take the positives.”

Despite a slow start in the Grand Prix, Perez did eventually manage to pick his way through the grid and secure six points on the same weekend that Red Bull’s emerging title rivals, McLaren, scored a dominant 1-2 victory. Nevertheless, with Verstappen unable to challenge the McLarens and clashing with Hamilton during the race’s latter stages, Red Bull’s lead in the constructors’ standings took a 20-point hit, with McLaren now in secind.

Reflecting on the Perez’s performance, Horner stated that at times he’d shown “very similar pace to McLaren” and hoped that he would take confidence from the weekend. But when grilled on Perez’s level of inconsistency, Horner conceded: “Yep, and that’s something that needs to change.”

When asked about the rumours surrounding the number two seat at Red Bull, Helmut Marko simply told Sky Germany: “We’ll wait for the next race in Spa. Then we’ll decide.”

2024 Belgian Grand Prix  

Perez points scored: 7

Imminent crunch talks over Perez’s future were widely known over the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend, piling pressure on Perez, although he appeared to have seized the opportunity on Saturday.

Having qualified third, Perez started the Grand Prix on the front row thanks to Verstappen’s 10-place grid penalty, which demoted him from pole. But confidence appeared to be low throughout the team. On the grid it was telling that Horner spoke at length about Verstappen’s chances of getting to the front, but only briefly about Perez, saying without much conviction that the best thing the Mexican could do was to get into the lead and disappear.

However, 44 laps later, the number 11 Red Bull crossed the line a distant seventh — 43sec off the lead and 34sec behind his team-mate having experienced no mechanical or technical issues at all.

Although a difficult strategy could be partly to blame — as Perez was forced to use a medium tyre during his middle stint while the cars around him turned to the superior hard tyre — he looked to have a general lack of pace.

“Sergio had the opportunity to take a good result from second place,” Marko told Sky Sports F1. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Especially in the last stint, he completely collapsed.

When asked by media if he would be given until the end of the season to improve, Horner replied: “I think that he’s as acutely aware as anybody that we need both cars performing, which is what we had at the beginning of the year, and that’s where we need to get back to.”

So while Perez may be back in the Red Bull come the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August, his seat looks anything but safe.