Perez’s brutal Belgian GP leaves Red Bull facing a decision ‘nobody wants to make’

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SPA, Belgium — Sergio Perez looked set to defend his Red Bull Formula 1 future on Saturday after putting his car on the front row of the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix.

He thrived in the damp conditions to take P2 on the grid after Max Verstappen’s penalty, his best qualifying result since April in China. Despite all the recent fuss and criticism about his future, Perez finally had an answer. As he put it: “It’s not like I’ve forgotten how to drive.”

But Sunday’s race only undermined Perez’s case for keeping his place at Red Bull, and at the worst possible time — the eve of the summer break. He slipped backwards as the race progressed, finishing eighth.

“Given his starting position, we didn’t expect to finish eighth,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted after the race. A disappointing result by any standard.

And one that gives Red Bull another reason to keep going.

Perez’s Back Slide

Red Bull have worked hard to understand why Perez is struggling after a strong start to the season. But with McLaren closing in on the constructors’ title and chipping another eight points off Red Bull’s lead, the pressure is mounting.

Perez went into the race hoping to exploit the slipstream of polesitter Charles Leclerc’s car on the long run to the first corner, as he had last year, and make an overtake. It would have been the first lap he had led this season. (Verstappen has led 448 of them.) Instead, he lost out to Lewis Hamilton and quickly fell out of DRS range, reporting on the radio that he was struggling with straight-line speed due to a flat battery.

With McLaren closing in on the constructors’ championship and Red Bull dropping another eight points at Spa, bringing the score to just 42, the pressure on Perez is mounting. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Pitting from third didn’t help Pérez, who struggled in traffic. He looked to attack Lance Stroll at the final chicane, but he fell back; when Stroll pitted, Pérez lost DRS, meaning Oscar Piastri was able to pick him off. Russell also got Pérez ahead of him, before Red Bull brought him into the pits just as Verstappen was close enough to make an attempt.

The next stint wasn’t much better. Perez dutifully moved aside for Verstappen, but couldn’t resist the chasing Lando Norris to protect his teammate. Carlos Sainz then demoted Perez to eighth with seven laps to go before Red Bull took the free pit stop to at least grab the fastest lap point. (Perez was promoted to seventh after the race following George Russell’s disqualification.)

Pérez, once dubbed the ‘Mexican Minister of Defense’ for his efforts to keep Hamilton in Abu Dhabi 2021 and help Verstappen win the title, was overtaken six times on Sunday.

He admitted it was a “very disappointing race”, citing battery issues and strategy that was out of sync. “I think we were just not good with the tyres today,” he said. “(The) balance was not there either. So yeah, (there are) plenty of things to analyse.”

A new frontier

Perez insisted the result did not change his future. “We have too much to do in the team, many things to focus on, and we cannot waste energy on all this speculation,” he said. “So this is the last time I will speak about the future. To make it clear to everyone, I will not speak anymore.

“I will not answer any more questions about the future.” It was the first time he had set such a boundary during a media session.

Perez has maintained throughout the recent race, and all the growing speculation, that he felt secure in his position. In fact, on Thursday he was so confident that he said he was 100 percent sure he would be in the car for the next race at Zandvoort, and that he had nothing to worry about as he went on his summer break.

But this summer break was always going to be the moment when Red Bull would make a decision about its future. With McLaren closing in — it trails by just 42 points after Spa — a championship is on the line unless Verstappen’s team-mate can make a significant contribution. Sunday was Perez’s chance to do just that, and he failed to make the most of it.

(Pérez and Verstappen finished eighth and fifth in the Belgian GP on Sunday, allowing McLaren to further close the gap in the constructors’ championship. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Horner confirmed after the race that the team had a meeting scheduled for tomorrow, but said it was “not just about Checo”, with other topics to discuss before the summer break. He reiterated the need to get to the heart of why Perez was struggling. “We need to work with him and continue to support him to understand what is not quite working at the moment,” he said.

Red Bull was so keen to make it work with Perez. Horner called him a “great team player” after the race and called the partnership with Verstappen the most successful in the team’s 20-year history. “Nobody wants to see him struggle,” Horner said. “The team was and is right behind him, everybody wants to see him succeed, because it hurts to see him in this situation.”

It does hurt, which makes the ability to make the decision to cut ties all the more difficult. “Nobody wants to make that decision,” Horner said. “You talk about it every day, of course. But in the team, we want to get him going.”

Verstappen, who finished fifth after starting 11th, was complimentary of Perez after the race, even saying his weekend had been “very positive” and that the team’s biggest concern should be the car’s performance. “It just shows that we have problems with the tyres,” Verstappen said. “I think that should be our biggest priority.”

Who could replace Perez?

If Red Bull decides that the situation with Perez cannot continue, either at tomorrow’s meeting or through a planned analysis, the problem is that it cannot guarantee that the form will improve.

Daniel Ricciardo said last week that he saw the races in Hungary and Belgium as “two of the most important of not only my season but potentially my career” and that he wanted to “go all the way”. This was not only a chance to stake a claim for that Red Bull seat he had always wanted but which had seemed so far out of reach until Perez’s slump, but also to ensure he didn’t lose his own seat at RB, which has also been in the spotlight this year.

Ricciardo’s single point in those two races may not seem like a strong argument, but Horner felt he had “done well”. His race in Hungary was compromised by RB’s strategy, and he only had one set of hard tyres used for the race in Spa, leaving him at risk of a late overtake from Esteban Ocon, who had two fresh sets and a better strategy. Ricciardo’s form may not be as convincing, but if Red Bull wants an experienced driver and a chance to see if there is any of the ‘old Daniel’ left from his 2018 peak, then his choice would make sense.

The other option is Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson, who impressed in his five-race stint as Ricciardo’s replacement last year and recently drove the Red Bull RB20 on a filming day. While he is undeniably talented, handing him the toughest seat in Formula 1 – as Verstappen’s teammate – would be a huge amount of pressure for a 22-year-old competing in just his sixth grand prix. Yuki Tsunoda appears unlikely to step in, despite having done enough to earn a new RB contract for 2025.

Both Ricciardo and Lawson will take part in a filming day at Imola next week in this year’s RB. Although limited to 200km, the race offers the chance to compare Ricciardo and Lawson in equal measure, although Horner was reluctant to stress its significance. “It’s a filming day, so they’ll be filming,” he said. “It’s all about the content.”

Red Bull wants to support Perez and help him turn the tide. But that patience can only last so long — and Spa will have tested it at exactly the wrong time for Checo.

(Main photo of Sergio Pérez: Jayce Illman/Getty Images)