Ex-F1 driver blasts Sergio Perez despite contract extension, claims Red Bull is ‘one-legged’ in title fight

Sergio Perez, the six-time Grand Prix winner, has all of a sudden, become the talk of the town. Yesterday, it was announced that he has signed a 2-year contract extension with Red Bull, and while he is ecstatic about this, former F1 driver, Damon Hill has brutally ripped into him!

The 1996 world champion has blatantly made it known that, with Sergio Perez, Red Bull is fighting one-legged in the 2024 championship battle. The former believes that Perez is just not at the expected level to be a driver for the Milton-Keynes-based outfit.

The 34-year-old is currently fifth in the driver’s championship standings.

It's no good being three-tenths away from Verstappen anymore. There are so many cars that can jump into that three-tenth gap. The gaps have become smaller and smaller, so points-wise, you can see that it is diminishing. Ferrari and McLaren, don't forget that they have two drivers who can attack. I'm not sure you can say that of Checo, so Red Bull are a little bit one-legged at the moment if they want to defend.

Damon Hill said in an interview with gpblog

Hill has made very strong points to back his verdict on the Mexican driver. Moreover, he is on point in his assessment as after the initial few rounds, Perez has just fallen massively off the pace of his world-champion teammate, Max Verstappen. To put things further into perspective, the former managed a P18 finish in Monaco qualifying in comparison to Verstappen’s P6.

Red Bull has a challenging 16 Grand Prix ahead of them

While Hill has blasted Perez for his timid performances, the battle for the constructors’ championship is getting extremely intense. The Mexican’s inconsistent run has started to have a negative effect on Verstappen.

The 26-year-old has won only a single race in his last three F1 outings, this is quite shocking keeping in view his might under the ground-effect era.

Ferrari and McLaren are both showing pace and closing the gap at certain circuits. I think if you give Red Bull the right track, it might be hard to catch them, but Max's run of total dominance seems to be faltering, and there is a long way to go.

Damon Hill said in the same interview

After eight rounds, Red Bull is leading the constructors championship by only a margin of 24 points. Moreover, the situation is quite dire in the drivers’ standings as well. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is only 31 points behind Max Verstappen and is catching up fast. From Canada onwards, the Milton-Keynes-based outfit can’t afford any more slip-ups, otherwise, they could fall down in the standings after a very long time.

In case you missed it:

• Red Bull might’ve extended Sergio Perez’s contract to keep Max Verstappen happy
• Christian Horner claims Red Bull ‘very pleased’ with Sergio Perez after two-year extension

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