While Max Verstappen’s collision with Lando Norris unsurprisingly dominated the headlines at the Austrian Grand Prix, Red Bull’s biggest issue at their home circuit was the continued underperformance of Sergio Perez.
Verstappen was on course to complete a Sprint and race double at the Red Bull Ring before a slow second pit stop gave Norris the chance to attack him and led to a collision with eight laps to go that ruined both of their chances.
Given Verstappen’s Red Bull and Norris’ McLaren were the two fastest cars on the track, it would be fair to assume that the most likely candidates to pick up the pieces would have been one of their team-mates.
Instead, it was Mercedes’ George Russell who gleefully accepted the second grand prix win of his F1 career and a first victory for Mercedes since November 2022.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri, who finished second, could count himself unfortunate, having cruelly had a qualifying lap that would have put him third on the grid deleted for a track limits breach. Starting from seventh, the Australian made solid progress and was a threat to Russell in the closing stages.
But with Piastri chasing Russell to the chequered flag, and securing a useful haul of 18 points for the Constructors’ Championship, where was Verstappen’s team-mate?
On the final lap, Perez was unsuccessfully attempting to pass the Haas of Nico Hulkenberg for sixth and being left to settle for seventh place, which would have been P9 if it weren’t for the crash up front.
Remarkably, this was Perez’s best grand prix finish in the last five races, three of which have been won by Verstappen.
New contract signed despite dismal form
After making a very solid start to the season that left him second in the drivers’ standings after six rounds on 101 points, 35 back from Verstappen, Perez has completely fallen apart.
In the five rounds since Miami, Perez has scored just 15 points, leaving Verstappen to fight alone, both in terms of race strategies and the constructors’ championship, in which Ferrari, McLaren and Mercedes are each attempting to chase Red Bull down.
Verstappen has amassed 101 points during the last five rounds, while the six drivers representing the other front runners have scored from between 52 to 74 points during that time. Perez has dropped to fifth overall, with Piastri and Russell just six and seven points back, respectively.
Perez’s loss of form has been compared to last season when his level dropped after a strong start that included two victories and two second places in the opening five races.
However, Red Bull’s 2023 advantage over the rest of the field in race pace was such that even with several shocking qualifying performances, Perez only finished outside of the top six in three of the 20 races he completed.
In 2024, with the chasing pack right on Red Bull’s tail, Perez is on a streak of five races without finishing in the top six.
In a decision that is being made to look more and more questionable by the week, two races into Perez’s current barren run, Red Bull gave him a two-year contract extension, ending speculation that he could be replaced for 2025.
If the team thought that giving Perez a new deal would relieve pressure on him and lead to better performances, they were wrong – at least to this point.
Along with the highly lucrative sponsorship money Perez brings in from his home region, the other main motivating factor for keeping him in place was surely to placate Verstappen, who remains the subject of interest from rivals Mercedes.
However, while Verstappen may not want a team-mate capable of challenging him for victories on a regular basis, Perez’s lack of competitiveness is becoming a major issue for Red Bull.
Ferrari had cut Red Bull’s lead at the top of the constructors’ standings to 24 points after the Monaco Grand Prix, but a disappointing run of form since for the Italian team has allowed Verstappen to almost single-handedly extend his team’s advantage to 64 points.
Horner: Pressure remains irrelevant of contracts
Horner has defended Perez throughout his poor run of form, but during an interview with Sky Sports F1 in Austria on Saturday, appeared to hint for the first time that Perez’s contract alone isn’t enough to guarantee his 2025 seat.
“We’re doing our best to support him and to fire what it is that’s missing,” Horner said.
“The first four, five races were very competitive and whatever’s happened that’s caused him to drop off… At Suzuka, one of the toughest tracks in the world and a real drivers’ circuit, he was a tenth of a second off Max, here with nine corners, the gap is obviously significantly greater. We just need to get to the bottom of it and help him recover.
“Checo’s position within the team, and what he’s contributed to the team warranted that [contract]. But of course, there’s always pressure to perform and that is irrelevant of contracts, which we’re obviously never going to go into the detail of.”
While Perez’s new contract was initially announced as a two-year deal that would see him remain with the team until the end of 2026, Horner – perhaps accidentally – revealed in Canada last month that it was a ‘one-plus-one’ deal, leaving escape clauses after the first year.
At this point, the bigger question appears to be whether Perez will make it to the start – rather than the end – of the first year of deal.
“Checo knows it’s a pressure business and he knows the scrutiny that there is, particularly in a car that’s winning a lot of races and performing with the other driver the way it is,” Horner said.
“So that’s F1, and that pressure just naturally exists on any team-mate that is under delivering. The media start asking questions and it’s very easy to lose your head.
“Now what I’ve been impressed with Checo over the last four years, is that whenever the pressure has really been on, and it’s on at the moment, he’s always been able to bounce back. And he’s going to need to dig deep to do that.”
Who would replace Perez?
When the possible alternatives to Perez are considered, it does become slightly more understandable as to why Red Bull were willing to keep him around.
Carlos Sainz is a free agent but the outgoing Ferrari driver’s arrival would have the potential to unsettle Verstappen and was therefore never realistic.
Alex Albon had been heavily linked with a return to Red Bull but instead chose to sign a long-term deal with Williams.
That leaves the two most obvious candidates as the drivers at Red Bull’s junior team, Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo.
Tsunoda started the season very strongly and earned a one-year contract extension of his own, but his form has deteriorated at the moment where strong results could have put the Red Bull hierarchy under pressure to consider him.
While Tsunoda has failed to score points in the last three grands prix, Ricciardo’s performance has picked up with two points-scoring finishes, but the Australian has not yet done enough to earn an extension with RB, let alone a promotion to Red Bull.
That leaves Red Bull in the strange position of having little they can do for the moment about their Perez problem, aside from hoping for what appears to be an increasingly unlikely turnaround in his form.
Sky Sports F1’s live British GP schedule (all F1 sessions on Sky Showcase)
Thursday July 4
1.30pm: Drivers’ Press Conference
6pm: The F1 Show
Friday July 5
8.35am: F3 Practice
9.55am: F2 Practice
12pm: British GP Practice One (session starts at 12.30pm)
2.05pm: F3 Qualifying
3pm: F2 Qualifying
3.45pm: British GP Practice Two (session starts at 4pm)
Saturday July 6
9.15am: F3 Sprint
11.15am: British GP Practice Three (session starts at 11.30am)
1.10pm: F2 Sprint
2.15pm: British GP Qualifying build-up
3pm: British GP Qualifying
5pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday July 7
8:15am: F3 Feature Race
9:50am: F2 Feature Race
11:50am: Porsche Supercup
1:30pm: Grand Prix Sunday – British GP build-up
3pm: The BRITISH GRAND PRIX
5pm: Chequered Flag: British GP reaction
6pm: Ted’s Notebook
F1’s summer triple-header concludes with the big one, the British Grand Prix at Silverstone. Watch every session live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Showcase, with Sunday’s race at 3pm. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
