Sergio Perez given ‘not scoring enough’ warning despite Red Bull show of faith

Although Red Bull will keep faith with Sergio Perez after the summer break, Tom Kristensen cannot see him staying in the race seat in the “long term”.

Perez’s form has been heavily scrutinised of late with the Mexican driver scoring just 46 points since his last podium result back in April’s Chinese Grand Prix.

Is it ‘just a matter of when’ for Sergio Perez?

That led to reports Red Bull were considering axing him in the summer break and putting either Liam Lawson or Daniel Ricciardo in the RB20 alongside Max Verstappen at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Instead, team boss Christian Horner announced on Monday that Perez would be staying put.

“Checo remains a Red Bull Racing driver, despite all the speculation of late,” he said at the team’s Milton Keynes headquarters. “We’re looking forward to seeing him perform at circuits where he’s done well before, after the summer break.”

But just because Perez is continuing “after the summer break”, that doesn’t mean he’ll be in the car long-term even though he signed a new two-year extension earlier this year.

“There’s no doubt that there’s five drivers at Red Bull for two cars. Tsunoda is safe, Verstappen is safe and there’s only two other seats,” former Dutch racing driver Kristensen told the F1 Nation podcast.

“But I would say it’s tough for Checo Perez knowing that a faster car is coming from the back. It’s tough to deliver, but he has not been consistent enough.

“He’s not scoring enough to deserve the place in the long term. So it’s just a matter of when but we have said that for a long time.”

Asked if a lack of confidence was Perez’s downfall, the 57-year-old replied: “Probably I’ll say it’s the whole environment. If you start to get into your head that you’re struggling, that you’re not doing it right, what do you need to do better, you will also over-drive.

“You will overdo it because you need to do well. And sometimes overdriving can really hit you hard.”

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His fellow guest pundit Stoffel Vandoorne believes Perez’s position has become more difficult in light of the inroads Red Bull’s rivals have made into their on-track advantage.

While the team dominated last season with 21 wins in 22 races, this year McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes have all claimed multiple wins. It means McLaren are just 42 points behind Red Bull with Ferrari a further 21 off the pace.

“I think also the game just has changed,” Vandoorne said. “You now have four teams that are fighting very closely together. Before when the Red Bull had such an advantage, even if he was a little bit behind Max, he was still P2 on the road.

“Now, there’s eight cars within a couple of tenths of a second, and if you’re a little bit off, you’re suddenly eighth on the grid.

“So I think Red Bull having such a big advantage last year, kind of helped Checo a little bit as well. And then everything becomes a little bit easier because you’re kind of just focusing on your team-mate, you don’t have to deal with the pressure of all the others around as well.”

Kristensen replied: “But they need somebody scoring more points to retain the Constructors’ title, that’s very important.

“And everyone else they can really smell the glory of taking the Constructors’ title away from Red Bull, there’s nothing more that they wanted to do than that.”

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