Marko critiques Perez’s ‘total collapse,’ impacting Red Bull’s championship race.
It appears that Dr. Helmut Marko is unlikely to extend his unequivocal support to Sergio Perez during today’s crucial Red Bull meeting concerning the future line-ups at Red Bull Racing and RB F1.
The Red Bull advisor has indeed lambasted what he termed the “total collapse” of Sergio Perez at the Formula 1 Belgian Grand Prix amidst swirling rumours of his potential ousting from the team.
Despite being poised to overcome his recent struggles with a front-row start, Perez slipped back through the field to finish in eighth place.
Marko openly voiced his dissatisfaction with the performance.
“Sergio had the opportunity to secure a strong result from second on the grid. Regrettably, that was not the case. Particularly in the last stint, he completely fell apart, clocking lap times of 1m48s.”
“What seemed so promising in qualifying unfortunately did not translate into race performance.”
“For us, the situation is such that we will also be reviewing the overall scenario for 2025. We have a number of drivers within our ranks and a promotion concept if needed.”
“However, of course, each result was crucial for Sergio this month and an eighth place from second on the grid is certainly not what we anticipated.”
“We are now fully focused on the team standings. McLaren has already made up ground. We need two drivers who can consistently score points.”
This leaves little room for optimism for Checo, at least on paper, in retaining his seat. Especially since Marko adds, quite bluntly:
“At this level, any of our junior drivers could perform as well or better. It’s up to us to learn from this! We will analyse everything and draw the necessary conclusions.”
Daniel Ricciardo was seen deep in conversation and smiling with Christian Horner last night after the Grand Prix, and he left the circuit by helicopter with Max Verstappen. A first clue?
Marko is concerned about Red Bull’s overall situation. While Max Verstappen has managed to further increase his lead in the drivers’ championship, the constructors’ championship situation is becoming increasingly critical. McLaren F1 is now just 42 points behind Red Bull.
“Max couldn’t make it back to the podium. We clearly lacked performance. But we were also negatively surprised. It turned out that overtaking was just as difficult as in Hungary, even though the straights are much longer here. It’s incomprehensible that the DRS zone was shortened with these cars.”
“We almost have to focus entirely on qualifying now. If there is anything positive to mention, it’s that we still gained two points over Lando Norris. But the only real overtaking was by Oscar Piastri on Charles Leclerc.”
Marko can also be relieved to have seen Norris make other personal driving errors.
“If you want to catch up with Max, there is obviously a lot of pressure,” admits Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren. “We know Lando is quite self-critical. He’ll be a bit grumpy about this error, but overall, he makes few mistakes and has many good moments.”
In the standings, Norris is the closest challenger to Verstappen – 78 points behind. Charles Leclerc of Ferrari is next, followed by Piastri – the Australian being 32 points behind Norris.
“It seems that Piastri is the strongest mentally and is gradually catching up with Lando over the course of this season and is even better in some areas,” Marko continues. “I haven’t seen any mistakes from him. Let’s see how the decision they made in Hungary plays out at the end of the championship. If Lando lacks points for the title…”
For Verstappen, the good news is that while McLaren has narrowed the gap, so has Mercedes, with Ferrari not far behind.
“It’s positive that McLaren wins one time and Mercedes the next,” the three-time world champion said after Spa.
“They can then take points off each other, which I really need for the rest of the season. In the drivers’ championship, the gap may seem large, but a single error or retirement and we will be much closer.”
Dr. Marko admits that Red Bull also has a lot of thinking and analysis to do on its car as F1 heads into the summer break.
“We need to examine the new parts we’ve installed on the car and analyze whether a less ambitious upgrade package would have been better.”
“We need to see if we are heading in the right direction. Mercedes was nowhere on Friday, then they changed a few elements and ‘poof!’, the car worked.”
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Perez Faces Critique as Marko Eyes Damage Control. F1 2024 Perez Faces Critique as Marko Eyes Damage Control. Perez Faces Critique as Marko Eyes Damage Control
