Sergio Perez drops potential major clue on Red Bull future with rare front-row start secured

Sergio Perez, it seems, is fully expecting to remain a Red Bull driver after the summer break, having made a comment about the upcoming Dutch Grand Prix.

Red Bull has upped the pressure on Perez to deliver amid a fresh and alarming slump in form, with the threat of McLaren now looming large as Red Bull’s Constructors’ Championship lead has been cut to 51 points ahead of the Belgian GP.

Sergio Perez expects to be racing for Red Bull at Zandvoort

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Despite signing a new multi-year deal ahead of the Canadian GP, qualifying in Belgium had been billed as potentially Perez’s last with Red Bull, with senior advisor Helmut Marko and team principal Christian Horner to meet over the summer break which follows to determine the driver line-ups for Red Bull’s two F1 teams.

PlanetF1.com has also learned that Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson will be driving at Imola next week in what has been billed a ‘shoot-out’ between the two drivers should a seat open up at Red Bull.

Perez delivered his best qualifying performance since China at Spa, classified P3 but improving to the front row due to team-mate Max Verstappen taking a 10-place engine penalty. But with the gap six-tenths to Verstappen, will that be enough to impress Red Bull?

Perez seems to believe he has nothing to worry about, as he claimed that should Grand Prix Sunday in Belgium not go to plan, then he has the Dutch GP after the summer break to turn the tide.

Asked by media including PlanetF1.com how satisfied he is with that qualifying performance, considering all the noise regarding his Red Bull future, Perez replied: “From my point of view, it doesn’t change anything.

“I’ve always said it’s not where we are now, it’s how you ride the waves and where we finish in Abu Dhabi.

“I mean, there are a lot of drivers that haven’t been able to maximize their performance lately, but obviously, there’s continuity on my side, it has been quite a bit higher.

“It doesn’t change anything from my point of view. I think tomorrow is a new day, a new opportunity. It will have been the same if I was knocked out in Q2, you know, tomorrow’s a new opportunity to do better and it’s the way I see it. It’s tomorrow what really counts.

“And if I don’t have a good race tomorrow, I will try to have a good one in Zandvoort.

“But it’s how it is, this is a sport and sometimes it goes your way, sometimes you have to fight and nothing goes in your direction. But I think it’s just the nature of this.”

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Nonetheless, Perez is fully focused on delivering a strong race day in Belgium to provide vital points for Red Bull, and all else he “couldn’t care less” about.

Asked if Spa qualifying was a sign of his confidence returning, Perez replied: “More than confidence.

“I mean, it’s not like I’ve forgot how to drive you know, from five, six races ago.

“It’s just that you see it with a lot of drivers. Sometimes you’re not able to maximise the full potential of your car and for that reason, you’ll end up lacking that, let’s say confidence to extract the maximum out of the car you have.

“I think we’ve been taking good steps forward in the right direction since Hungary. I think Silverstone already I had a really good Friday.

“So I think the car is going in the right direction for now and hopefully tomorrow we are able to finish it off with a strong result.

“And it’s still a long way to go in the season. So yeah, just head down. And I think like I’ve said before, the team, myself, are focusing on what we’ve got to do. At the end of the day, it’s getting the most points we possibly can. And the rest, couldn’t care less to be honest.”

Starting alongside Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc on the front row and with Verstappen needing to work his way up from P11, Perez realistically has a golden opportunity to win the Belgian Grand Prix.

But, speaking immediately after qualifying, Perez did not sound too sure on his victory chances.

Asked if he can win the race, Perez replied: “We’ll see. It’s a very long race ahead of us.

“I think tomorrow degradation will be quite tricky, graining, with this new tarmac. I think there are a lot of unknowns still.

“But I’ve got a good feeling for tomorrow, so we’ll see.”

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