Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has reiterated that Sergio Perez's contract for 2025 will be of little use if the Mexican does not improve his performance in the final races of the season.
Perez's disappointing 2024 campaign with the bulls has left the 34-year-old a lowly eighth in F1's Drivers' standings, a whopping 204 points behind his teammate and championship leader Max Verstappen.
Save for the Australian Grand Prix where the Dutchman retired, the three-time world champion has outscored Perez in every single race this year, while the performance gap between the two drivers on race weekends has often been as wide as an ocean between continents.
Perez's significant underperformance – his last podium was in April in China – has also handicaped Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship in which the team trails leader McLaren by 40 points while its advantage over Ferrari, in third place, has dwindled to just 8 points.
Although Red Bull announced in June that Perez had renewed his contract until 2026, the team's patience is now clearly running thin.
Read also:
Marko has been vocal about Perez's relative weakness, and after last weekend's US Grand Prix in which seventh, the Red Bull chief suggested once again his contractual status won't shield him from potential repercussions.
“Perez may have a contract, but Formula 1 is a meritocracy,” Marko told German publication F1-Insider. “If the performance is not right, even contracts are useless.
“At the end of the season, we will sit down together and decide who is the best team-mate for Verstappen at Red Bull.”
©RedBull
Perez's tenure has been further weakened by the emergence of 21-year-old Liam Lawson who recently replaced Daniel Ricciardo at RB and who celebrated his return to the grid with an impressive run to P9 in Austin.
Ahead of the US Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner alluded to Lawson's return as a full-scale audition for 2025 and an assessment for a possible promotion to Red Bull Racing.
In Austin, Horner didn't hold back in addressing Perez's contribution – or lack of – regarding Red Bull's position in the championship's standings.
“Look Ferrari, again, congratulations to them this weekend,” Horner said. “They've been very, very strong. And they've got two drivers that are competing at the front.
“McLaren, likewise, their drivers, there's not a big deficit between them. So, you know, that's where we really need for the Constructors to have Checo come into play.”
©RedBull
As the team heads to Mexico City for Perez's home race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, there is hope that the overwhelming support from his home crowd could provide the boost the local hero desperately needs.
Horner expressed optimism, acknowledging that a strong qualifying session is crucial to keep Perez in contention and avoid falling behind early in the race.
“Well, hopefully, with the support that he'll receive in Mexico, it'll give him that boost,” Horner said.
“When you qualify out of position, you lose so much time coming through tail-end cars in the top 10 that you've then lost contact with the rest of the race.”
With Red Bull's top brass making it clear that performance will be the ultimate determinant to decide Perez's fate, the latter is in a race against time to secure his future with the team.
Should he fail to turn things around, Red Bull could be forced to make a difficult decision and look towards younger talent to fill the seat.
Whether the Mexican driver can bounce back or if Red Bull will seek a change remains to be seen. What is clear, however, is that Perez's seat for 2025 is anything but guaranteed.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
