Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko slated Sergio Perez’s performance after he fell from second on the grid to finish eighth in yesterday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“Sergio had the opportunity to achieve a good result in second place,” Marko told Sky Germany. “But unfortunately that wasn’t the case.“In particular, in the final stint, he completely collapsed, at times driving [one minute] 48 lap times. So what looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn’t come true in the race.”
Marko’s comments on Perez’s lap times are not inaccurate. But does his withering assessment of Perez’s efforts also ignore an important aspect of his contribution to the team’s performance?
Perez’s opening stint on the medium tyre compound was reasonable if not earth-shattering. Lewis Hamilton made a slightly better start and used the inside line at La Source to good effect, prising second place from the Red Bull driver’s hands.
From there Perez held on to his third place, falling around two seconds back from Charles Leclerc, who Hamilton demoted to second place on lap three. The Red Bull is undoubtedly a quicker car than the Ferrari at the moment and Perez arguably should have put up more of a fight.
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But at this stage in the race, with the softer rubber degrading quickly, few drivers were pressuring those ahead. Perez also revealed he did not have a full set of Red Bull’s latest parts at Spa – potentially a legacy of his heavy crash in qualifying at the Hungaroring a week earlier.
He was being pursued by Oscar Piastri at the time, and the McLaren driver immediately passed him after they changed tyres on the same lap. From there he slipped back steadily from Piastri, and on lap 20 Russell made his move on the Red Bull driver for fifth place.
By now Perez had dropped back three places from his original starting position, all through on-track overtakes on a day when others were finding it difficult to pass. He had the second-slowest straight-line speed of anyone, 4kph down on his team mate (with a fresh RBPT Honda motor), and complained about his vulnerability in the long acceleration zones during the race.
| Lap: 20/44 PER: 1’49.663 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Russell at 0.4. Max 0.5 behind Russell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 21/44 PER: 1’54.682 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Russell passes Perez Okay Max at 0.4. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Mode six, mode six. Box Checo, box. Strat 12 in the pit lane | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 22/44 PER: 2’01.831 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Yeah. We are very slow on the straights. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On lap 25 Red Bull gave Perez a lap time target of 1’47.5. After lapping a few tenths above this, he hit it on lap 29.
| Lap: 23/44 PER: 1’47.223 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Do we need to manage? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 25/44 PER: 1’47.667 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Mode seven for now. Mode seven. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | So matched Sainz there. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Target 47.5, 47.5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 26/44 PER: 1’48.048 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | 19 laps to go, directly racing Leclerc to the end here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Hamilton also pitted. He’ll be in front of Leclerc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 27/44 PER: 1’47.625 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Gap to Leclerc 6.5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
But by now Red Bull were minded to use Perez’s race to his team mate’s advantage. Verstappen was looming in his mirrors and his closest championship rival Lando Norris was gaining on the pair of them.
Knowing Verstappen had to switch back to medium rubber for the final stint, but Norris had a fresh set of hards and could therefore come in earlier, Red Bull saw an opportunity to use Perez to ensure McLaren would not get their man into the pits early to ‘undercut’ them. They summoned Perez in for his second stop, which left him far enough behind Verstappen and Norris that both would come out behind him the next time they pitted.
Now Red Bull had the luxury of being able to pit Verstappen, knowing Perez would wave him by, while McLaren could not do the same for Norris, as he would be let through so easily. Sure enough, when Verstappen came in Perez quickly jumped out of the way, losing almost a second and a half as he did.
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| Lap: 29/44 PER: 1’47.470 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max two seconds behind, fresher tyres. Leclerc’s last lap 47.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 30/44 PER: 1’48.878 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max at one second. Stay focused on our race. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max with DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | So we’re releasing Max into 10. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Release Max into turn 10 and Norris at two seconds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Norris at two seconds. Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This was the point at which Perez’s lap times rose into the 1’48 range Marko referred to. Red Bull had used him tactically to Verstappen’s advantage but his sub-par pace up to that point, particularly in the second stint, created the conditions for it. The role played by differences between their cars and especially the wisdom of taking mediums for his second stint is up for debate.
Afterwards, however, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Perez. Even before Red Bull moved him aside for Verstappen he was on course to convert a front row start into his eighth consecutive non-top-six result. This in a car which Verstappen reckoned could have won the race from the pole position he qualified on before his penalty.
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Marko gave further indication that the writing is on the wall for Perez. “The situation for us is such that we will go through the overall situation for ’25,” he said. “We have a number of drivers and we have a concept.
“But of course for Sergio, every result [matters] and eighth place from second place on the grid is certainly not what we expected.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
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- High plank wear also a factor in Russell’s disqualification, say Mercedes
- Russell is sixth F1 driver to be disqualified after winning a grand prix
- Unheard radio shows why Hamilton missed Russell’s (almost) race-winning strategy
- 2024 Belgian Grand Prix weekend F1 driver ratings
Mathew
29th July 2024, 11:46
He is gone, Ricardo will be in that seat after summer break.
MichaelN
29th July 2024, 11:55
I thought it was interesting Pérez said: “I think we have too much going on in the team and a lot of things that we have to focus on.”
Red Bull has had a very bad inseason development. Very unusual for them. One wonders how much of this is due to the Horner shenanigans, both related to the business of the company, and to his curious views on appropriate interactions with staff. It seems they’ve hidden their internal strife well, but the results on race weekends are harder to obscure.
Robbie1
29th July 2024, 12:22
“Red Bull has had a very bad inseason development. Very unusual for them.”
Three years ago it would be unusual, but in this current era of “F1” where excellence is being punished and incompetence rewarded (sliding ATR) it is no surprise the incompetent rise to the top and the competent fall.
BOP!
Sham (@sham)
29th July 2024, 13:37
But it’s also funny how that when Mercedes was being handicapped, the majority were all in favour.
Tables turning is always a fun thing.
M2X
29th July 2024, 12:27
Its got all to do with Horner’s actions ever since Mateschitz passed away.
He’s clearly done alot to aliennate key personnel.
The whatsapp messaging is merely what surfaced.
However, that doesn’t excuse Perez’s performances over the past years, which specially in the European leg of the season have been abominable year on year.
The deficit to Verstappen is one thing but the amount of crashes that cost the team money, strategy and reveals design secrets are especially concerning.
sumedh
29th July 2024, 12:35
At the start of the season, the car and results were good but the news about the team was bad. Now, the car and results are not good but the news about the team is not there / not bad.
Good for Horner as a team principal. Bad for Max, the driver. Sooner he leaves this ship, the better
Hammertime
29th July 2024, 14:47
Where will Max go .., Mercedes ? He will have George has a team mate , it will not be good for him and his volatile attitude .
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 13:07
Eh, Newey leaving? Losing your main car designer mid-season because of in-fighting sounds like a recipe for major disruption.
Tifoso1989 (@tifoso1989)
29th July 2024, 14:55
@david-br
Ferrari lost Cardile but they seem to be regaining form lately :)
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 18:24
@tifoso1989 Any gossip on Newey to Ferrari??
Nick T.
30th July 2024, 2:51
All reports say Ferrari is off after rejected his demands of bringing 20 handpicked engineers. All signs point toward AMF1, which accepted his terms + nearly tripled Ferrari’s $ offer. A shock Williams move is the only other alternative I see, but there is absolutely zero smoke around that possibility. Maybe Ferrari will change their mind considering how poorly they’ve been going.
Hammertime
29th July 2024, 14:50
The car is fine . Max would have won the race from pole without the penalty . Their advantage has reduced as expected because of the sliding ATR scale put in place after 2021 . The years of continous domination of the past is over due to the new system and that is a good thing ,
joe jopling (@jop452)
29th July 2024, 12:41
My belief is Dan Ric has been told he has the seat for the rest of the season. I would not blame Perez for having to go, as I think he has been subjected to the wrong kind of pressure from the team, but people will have their own opinions
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 13:05
@jop452 Not sure what you mean by the ‘wrong kind of pressure’.
FrankT
29th July 2024, 13:58
the pressure of having his contract extended when he was not performing?
Steve (@scbriml)
29th July 2024, 18:17
But with a clause that would let Red Bull get rid of him if he was more than 100 points behind Verstappen at the summer break. It’s almost as though Perez signed his own death warrant because nobody expected him to be that close to Verstappen at the break.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th July 2024, 12:48
I wonder if Perez will get demoted to RB or shown the door entirely.
There is the danger that Perez may spill some beans if let go entirely.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 14:03
I see no point in demoting him. They already have enough drivers.
Red Bull wants to keep Ricciardo and promote Lawson, so removing Perez out of the picture is something they must have been thinking since Ricciardo was available again.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
29th July 2024, 14:07
I’d expect Perez to go completely, but I think there’s a lot happening behind closed doors which may effect the final outcome here.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 12:49
His race only went south when they put him on mediums again when everybody including Max went with hards.
Red Bull’s strategies with him have been questionable, unfortunately he is not in a place to complain.
FrankT
29th July 2024, 13:59
No his race went south when he dropped back in the field immediately from lap 1, before he had the pitstop, stay with the facts.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 14:05
Dropped off losing one place? What are you on? Look at the graphs!!
So annoying when people try to correct you writting nonsense.
notagrumpyfan
29th July 2024, 16:22
I checked the graphs and indeed he lost a position early on and ‘dropped back’ afterwards to create (amongst the main teams) the biggest gap in front of him and a train of cars behind.
Also during the race he was overtaken on track by four other drivers, and only was saved from more humiliation by being pitted just before Verstappen and Norris arrived.
Not a career saving weekend in my opinion.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 16:29
By the time they went for tyres the first time, he was 2.3 secs off Leclerc and 4.4 secs behind the race leader.
That’s pretty much normal stuff, in particular compared to what came later.
Dropping back would be if he was slow to the point of ruining the race of those behind him. He did drop off quick, but that was after he put on another set of medium tyres.
Patrick (@paeschli)
29th July 2024, 14:55
Explain to me how he got screwed by the strategy when Piastri overtook him despite Perez having the tyre advantage (Perez on mediums, Piastri on hards).
I’d argue his race went south once it was clear he was slower on brand new mediums compared to Piastri on brand new hards.
Verstappen used two sets of Mediums as well and finished a respectable 4th.
Edvaldo
29th July 2024, 15:09
If you’re not aware, there’s a difference in using the tyres on the middle stint and on the last stint. The car is lighter and less hard on the tyres. And that’s what Red Bull did with Max.
Max said it would be better to have more hard tyres available. Hards were the best tyres for this race, so, no, he had no tyre advantage against Piastri.
BasCB (@bascb)
29th July 2024, 18:15
Yeah a lot of the bad result was down to bad strategy (in part sacrificing his race to help Verstappen)
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 13:04
My reading is that Pérez is already gone. Surprises me a bit as he’s been no different from 2023. But I guess the difference is that Red Bull are no longer ahead in terms of car performance. Pérez was OK at Spa, made Q3 and was slowest of the top 8, but without the updates Verstappen had, plus his race was comprised by yanking him out of Max’s way twice. But then that’s what the number two driver at Red Bull is there for, right?
Put it another way: Pérez showed that, as we already know, he hasn’t what it takes to make a difference, but on a good day he can drive a Formula 1 car competently. A low bar, sure. But Red Bull’s question – and it’s their own fault exclusively is whether anyone else they put in the second car can set the bar any higher? They may end up taking the risk now when they could have done more safely last year. Poor decision if so.
jpvalverde85 (@jpvalverde85)
29th July 2024, 13:23
We still doubt about this guys? It’s always the car, 90-95% of the performance comes from the car. Lewis found the car again, he never left. Danny never found footing in the papaya car. Every year when the car is neutral Checo as a clear number 2 driver that is, a journeyman that brings sponsors, can somewhat match Max performance, but as the season goes and the car develops around the speed that Max provides, it goes his way. This year that the car evidently sucks the only way to win for Max is clear air leading the pack. Now to this particular Spa, Checo went too much on downforce for the Saturday because he cant drive Max car (tight front and whatever comes), this went nuclear on the tyres at the GP, and the team having opted for more mediums than hards didnt help, the car was fast (just a sitting duck at Kemmel and Blanchimont), but pace was slow because the tyres were being cooked by the heat and extra df from the setup. If Danny it is, i hope he can drive around Max car and setup, from previous experience i guess he can but still he will be at a bad place, and he already left for that reason…
HAL
29th July 2024, 15:11
5 to 10% performance is huge when everyone is fighting for thousands…
But if your point is that Perez can do much better than what he is doing today ; I agree. I don’t know if he does not like how RB develops its car, if he’s struggling mentally, or whatsnot.
But at the end of the day, Sergio has had massive drop of performances 2 years in a row. This is F1… It make sense RB want to change him and try another driver. In my book Sergio was given so much more support and time than Gasly, Kyviat, Albon that I’m struggling to sympathize…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
1st August 2024, 11:36
This percentage is meant to be the old driver vs car equation, in the 90s the car mattered less, 80% or even less, some drivers could give 1,5-2 sec gap to their team mates, then it kept increasing.
Drivers can still make a considerable difference, several tenths, if you pick verstappen vs perez or other midfield drivers, but nowhere near as much as the car can do, which is why hamilton was unbeatable until 2021, then beatable in 2021 and not hard to beat in 2022, and why verstappen didn’t win that many races before 2021, dominated since mid 2022 and now is looking beatable again.
I agree perez has been given way too much time, unlike gasly and albon he was good enough his first season, but then just kept getting worse; I guess the fact he had a good season initially showed he has red bull potential, unlike the other 2, but at this point he’s just too inconsistent and if I were a team principal I wouldn’t keep a driver like this, I’d definitely have given sainz an opportunity after his season.
Maisch (@maisch)
29th July 2024, 13:35
Its a bit of waste of a seat, i really hope they give some one else a chance, there so many potential quick drivers that never gets the chance. I dont doubt Perez could be half decent in a specific car that suits him, but in this era its just not working out very well+ rookie mistakes. I would be very surprised if it was Ric though, who got beaten so many times this year by tsunoda.
Kribana (@krichelle)
29th July 2024, 16:14
They should just ditch the 2nd car really. Why run a 2nd car when the first car can win both championships? Easy solution, no money lost.
Nerrticus (@nerrticus)
29th July 2024, 20:29
There still lots of money to lose. Max was able to do it all himself the last couple years but not anymore. They could still fall to 3rd in the constructors even with Max as WDC. Which is exactly why Sergio’s about to go…
ben
29th July 2024, 13:53
I hope they take a chance on someone else but I don’t think they will.
Perez is the perfect number 2 for Redbull. He makes Max look more impressive and rarely moans about the team or car. If he could up his performances to finish top 5 every race then he’d be locked in for years. Personally I don’t think RedBull dislike having a big gap between their drivers. They’ll still win both championships and it makes strategy easy. In the last two races alone we’ve seen Mclaren and Mercedes make a bit of a mess of driver/race management. This is something RedBull haven’t had to worry about for years. They can test with Perez to give Max even more advantage.
Ricciardo likely won’t be any faster than Perez. He is more marketable but do RedBull really need that? He’s also much more likely to get his elbows out and cause potential disruption to Max on some of his speciality circuits. I see this as a risk RedBull don’t need to take.
Tsnoda – I can’t see him matching Max on pace and can see him being extremely critical of the team/car when things don’t go his way, which will likely be every event. Again, another risk RedBull don’t need to take
Lawson – Impressed in RB, but apparently was off the pace in the tests he’s done so far for RedBull. He’s arguably the best replacement for Perez, but you’re swapping a race winner, pole winner and team player in Perez for a big unknown.
Overall if RedBull had a stronger junior line up Perez would be gone. But I don’t think they’ll see any of their options as that impressive.
If they wanted the strongest line-up they’d be trying to get Sainz. By not going after him it’s extremely clear they don’t want anyone to who could actually challenge Max, so I expect they’ll keep Perez.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
29th July 2024, 14:01
As long as Carlos Slim keeps paying for his drive, Perez is safe at Red Bull this year.
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 14:09
@ferrox-glideh I’d presumed so but Horner and Marko’s comments at Spa suggest something different, like they’re preparing the ground for dismissing him if and when they have the alternative lined up.
ferrox glideh (@ferrox-glideh)
29th July 2024, 18:19
@david-br Or they are putting the heat on Checo’s people, looking for more money. I’m not usually so cynical, but this is Red Bull after all. ;)
David BR (@david-br)
29th July 2024, 18:26
@ferrox-glideh I hadn’t thought of that, you’re right. Works for them either way I guess…
BasCB (@bascb)
29th July 2024, 19:49
Who knows – they might just want a bigger cheque!
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
29th July 2024, 14:11
PER did a second stint on mediums so Red Bull could collect data for VER’s stint on mediums. They said on the radio to VER that they knew the tires would last. I think when they resigned PER, they were destroying the competition and PER was a great 2nd driver for doing whatever. But now the other teams are gaining and VER is going to need help up front. I think we’ll soon find out that RIC and PER will switch.
Leo B
29th July 2024, 14:18
Perez held up Max for the best part of a lap on his way to pit. The point of doing that is beyond me.
Davethechicken
29th July 2024, 14:38
The mentality of Red Bull in a sentence.
Contrast that to Mercedes letting them fight.
Amazing this is acceptable to fans of Max.
notagrumpyfan
29th July 2024, 16:25
And even more surprising is that they pitted him just when he would’ve started to hold up Norris.
Phil Norman (@phil-f1-21)
29th July 2024, 14:43
Marko is an awful excuse for a human being. At least Horner has a human side and some kind of consideration for people under his management. I don’t just say this now. I have always thought so. He strikes me as really unpleasant.
I hope Daniel gets the seat but if I am entirely honest I don’t think he would be a huge improvement. Maybe better but no where near the same class as Verstappen. He might be a little more reliable i.e. he will usually bring home some points. I guess that’s all they need really.
I am not sure, that if it is Daniel, he will stay in that seat next year. I think it might be a temporary thing to evaluate how well he does. No one is safe at Red Bull apart from Max of course.
Maciek (@maciek)
29th July 2024, 14:54
It feels inevitable that someone else will be in that seat at Zandvoort. No matter how you break down the nitty gritty of how the race went for Perez, in the end 2nd to 7th – and far closer to 8th than to 6th – is or certainly looks very underwhelming for a driver who absolutely needed a great result to prove something. It’s Adiós Checo.
notagrumpyfan
29th July 2024, 16:30
Certainly closer to 8th as he finished in 8th position ;)
(later promoted due to RUS disqualification)
Maciek (@maciek)
29th July 2024, 18:00
Indeed, indeed.
Oxnard (@montalvo)
29th July 2024, 16:32
What’s to point in compairing lap times when drivers are stuck in the DRS train?
SteveP
29th July 2024, 22:12
I think, for a good portion of the race, Perez was probably the cause of the DRS train.
As a demonstration of his fitness for the position of driving that second RBR, I’d say he failed the practical portion of the interview.