Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko has slammed Sergio Perez’s “complete collapse” in Formula 1’s Belgian Grand Prix as rumours swirl over his prospects with the team.
Perez entered the past weekend under pressure to deliver a result amid a wretched run which had seen him accumulate a pitiful 21 points across a seven-round spell.
But while he was primed to end his plight as he managed a front-row starting appearance, Perez slumped through the pack to take the chequered flag in eighth place.
The Mexican was caught and ended up behind Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen despite the Dutchman, who qualified quickest, incurring a 10-place grid demotion.
Perez would be promoted one place in the classification as race winner George Russell was disqualified; however, Marko made clear his dissatisfaction with the race.
“Sergio had the opportunity to take a good result from second place,” Marko told Sky Germany.
“Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case. Especially in the last stint, he completely collapsed, where he set 1m48s lap times.
“What looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn’t materialise in the race.”
Marko and Horner are due to meet on Monday to discuss the circumstances concerning both Red Bull and sister squad RB’s driver line-ups heading into next season.
But with McLaren emerging as a genuine threat to Red Bull’s Constructors’ Championship bid, the Austrian outfit could decide to replace Perez with immediate effect.
“For us, the situation is such that we will also go through the overall situation for 2025,” he added. “We have a number of drivers and we have a concept.
“But of course, every result is [important] for Sergio, and eighth place from second on the grid is certainly not what we expected.”
Perez attributed his sudden drop to becoming a sitting duck with compromised straight-line speed and a strategic route which put him on older rubber than his rivals.
“It was a very disappointing race,” Perez lamented. “It started well, I was just struggling a lot on the straights.
“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 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.
“We did quite a short stint as well, so we were just out of sync. I think we were just not good with tyres today. Balance wasn’t there as well, so plenty of things to analyse on our side.”
Perez, who has been adamant that Belgium wouldn’t mark his last outing with Red Bull, has now declared he will not discuss questions surrounding his Red Bull drive.
“On Saturday I had a good qualifying, a good day,” he continued. It doesn’t change anything.
“I think we have too much going on in the team and a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation.
“This is the last time I will speak about the future, so just to make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking anymore. I will not answer any more questions about the future.”
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