Red Bull will discuss Sergio Perez’s Formula 1 future in a meeting on Monday – immediately after Formula 1’s 2024 Belgian Grand Prix – according to its motorsport advisor Helmut Marko.
The world champion squad is considering dropping the driver it re-signed to a fresh contract at the start of the summer, but who has scored just 21 points to team-mate Max Verstappen’s 129 and three wins since the Shanghai round.
Red Bull and its RB junior team had always been set for "quiet discussion" about its driver line-up dilemmas, per RB’s CEO Peter Bayer, with Perez’s contract understood to contain a performance clause that means he can be released if he is not within 100 points of Verstappen’s total (he is currently 141 behind and cannot reach the point he needs even with victory and fastest lap at Spa) over the upcoming summer break.
One of Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda is likely to be promoted to replace Perez after the summer break if Red Bull decides it cannot carry on with its current driver line-up at its top team.
Ricciardo, meanwhile, is also under considerable concurrent pressure after it emerged at last weekend’s Hungarian round that Red Bull will either choose to promote him back to its main squad in place of Perez or drop him from RB in favour of Lawson.
Speaking to Red Bull’s own TV channel, ServusTV, ahead of qualifying where Perez was beaten by Verstappen and Charles Leclerc although he will start second behind the Ferrari due to his team-mate’s latest Spa grid penalty, Marko said: “Sergio knows that for the constructors' championship we have to have both cars ahead of McLaren if possible, and that hasn't been the case in the last few races.”
When asked to outline Perez’s goal for the Spa weekend, Marko then replied: “No, the goal is to win both the drivers' and constructors' championships, and we'll discuss the best way to achieve that on Monday.”
In another interview post-qualifying, Marko said the session “showed that Max is absolutely the best, especially in these conditions”.
He added: “But it is also crucial that McLaren was not as strong in the wet as they will probably be in the dry [race]. That means our starting position has improved and it will be a very exciting race.
“But it's great to see Sergio, who has really improved. He will start on the front row due to the relegation and now things are looking much better again.”
When it was put to Marko that Perez has earned new deals despite producing underwhelming results before in his career at Red Bull – where he has raced since 2021 – the 1971 Le Mans winner replied, “Yes, but we don't need the lows”.
“We can only live with that with difficulty,” Marko continued.
Additional reporting by Frederik Hackbarth
