Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has called on Sergio Perez to “get a grip” on his qualifying performances in Formula 1.
The Mexican driver was eliminated in Q1 on Saturday as he struggled to generate tyre temperature in changing conditions.
It was the fifth time in a row that Perez failed to join team-mate Max Verstappen in the final segment of qualifying.
Perez has dropped out in Q1 on two previous occasions this year, crashing in the early stages of Australia and Monaco’s qualifying sessions.
Marko has vowed that Red Bull will work with Perez to help him improve his form amid his difficult run.
“Perez needs to get a grip on his qualifications,” Marko told Sky Sport.
“Usually, he drives good races, but he’s now lucky again: you can easily catch up here.
“It has always been a weakness of his. It just happens too often and he has to work on that.
“We’re also going to work on it, because if one driver is in front and the other 16th, something isn’t right.”
While Perez suffered an early elimination, team-mate Max Verstappen went on to take his seventh pole position of the season.
Red Bull’s deficit over the rest of the field in qualifying trim has been much narrower than its race-day advantage.
At Silverstone, it faced a fresh threat from McLaren, with Lando Norris jumping to provisional pole before Verstappen bettered his effort.
Marko revealed that Red Bull was considering not doing a second run as it believed Verstappen’s first hot lap in Q3 would’ve been sufficient for pole position.
“They were tough conditions and they were decisions that had to be made in seconds: at what point do you go out on the track?
“It was also difficult for Max and at the moments when we thought it was enough, it turned out not to be the case.
“In Q3 that was also the case and we thought the first attempt was enough for pole.
“Thank goodness we did a second run, but with these constantly changing conditions it was not easy to get the tyres up to temperature.
“You shouldn’t take too much risk, but still drive at the limit. That was a tricky challenge.”
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