Perez's Red Bull Future in Jeopardy After Hungary Practice Crash?
Jul.22 - Sergio Perez's future at Red Bull became even more clouded on Friday when he crashed during his opening practice laps at the Hungaroring.
With Daniel Ricciardo back in racing action in the Red Bull family this weekend and Yuki Tsunoda also still shining in the sister AlphaTauri, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher said the crash was the last thing Perez needed.
"This cannot happen," he told Sky Deutschland. "I predict he will lose his place in the long run.
"And maybe Ricciardo's return to the wheel of Red Bull is closer than we all think."
Most believe the 33-year-old is now spiralling downwards as the pressure mounts.
"The mental factor is very, very important," AlphaTauri boss Franz Tost told Bild newspaper when asked about Perez's situation.
"You win and lose races in your head. Formula 1 is a very tough business."
Worse still for Perez is that he crashed before collecting any data for Red Bull about its new and rare-in-2023 car update.
"Now he has no more spare parts," Dr Helmut Marko confirmed.
However, with Perez already contracted for 2024 - and with multiple powerful Mexican sponsors part of the deal - Marko insists that his seat is safe for now.
"If Ricciardo presents himself well, he could certainly be an issue for Red Bull Racing in the future," said Marko.
"But that will certainly only be possible after the end of the 2024 season, when Perez's contract expires."
Marko told motorsport-magazin.com that, on Friday, Ricciardo was "close to Tsunoda" except on the soft tyres in qualifying trim.
"He needs to improve on the fast lap to get more in qualifying - that's our goal," he said. "There is still a third training session for this so I hope we can solve these problems."
AlphaTauri's Tost believes Japanese Tsunoda will also be a candidate for Perez's top seat.
"Of course that depends on the further results," he said. "There are already discussions with our partner Honda.
"If you take this year's performances, you can assume that it can happen."
For his part, Perez admitted he simply made a mistake on Friday - on top of five consecutive failures to even reach Q3 recently.
"It's nothing different from what could happen to any driver on the grid," he told DAZN in Hungary. "We all have good and bad moments."
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We'll see
The determining factor will be RB's expectations of RIC in an also-ran car. He'll handle TSU, but can he handle the doc?
Marko insists that Perez will remain until the end of 2024. However, he could end up as reserve driver or be transferred to Alpha Tauri and open the door for either Tsunoda or Ricciardo to step into Red Bull. Does his contract state that he must drive a Red Bull? Or does it contain a performance clause which he is failing to meet? On current form the only factor keeping him in the car is the Mexican sponsorship.
P9 on the grid for Hungary is not encouraging for Perez. Especially on a track where passing is so difficult.
Aparantly all the RB and AT drivers are under contract to Red bull drinks, in other words we say which team you drive for RB or AT ie promotion or demotion just good contracting if so
Checo is clearly solely contracted to Red Bull Racing like his teammate, Seb, Danny Ric, Webber, etc., in the past.
Hmmm, he's second in the championship and can't do better than that, but on the other hand, making damage is very costly for RB, because of the budgetcap and limited windtunnel time. They want to invest as less as possible in spare parts instead of development parts.
I bet if he will have a few more shunts, he will be out.