Helmut Marko breaks silence on Sergio Perez’s future with Red Bull beyond 2024

Sergio Perez's contract with Red Bull runs till the end of 2024.

Helmut Marko breaks silence on Sergio Perez’s future with Red Bull beyond 2024

Sergio Perez and Helmut Marko. (Via IMAGO)

Sergio Perez’s future with Red Bull has become a much-discussed topic. Due to the massive gap between him and Max Verstappen coupled with his disappointing run of performances, it is uncertain whether he’ll extend his contract with the team. Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko recently addressed the issue and said that the team is still not sure about their and Perez’s future.

The prime competitor for Perez’s seat is Liam Lawson. His impressive F1 debut has put him in a strong position to compete for the seat in 2025. Marko said that they will be preparing Lawson in case Perez does not extend his contract with the team. After his disappointing double DNF at Suzuka, Marko claimed that Perez would make a strong comeback at Qatar.

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“Liam has done everything well in his sensational debut in Formula One…You have to be prepared, we don’t know if Pérez will want to continue or not after 2024, so we need to have four strong drivers and a good reserve as well,” Helmut Marko told Motorsport Magazin (H/T: SoyMotor).

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Further adding to Perez’s woes, his second place in the WDC standings also seems to be under threat. Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton has closed the gap between the two to just 33 points. With just six races remaining, Perez will have to put in some solid performances to safely take home P2 this season.

Also read: Ex-F1 team owner urges Red Bull to take the chance on Liam Lawson

F1 pundit SLAMS Sergio Perez’s latest performances

Sergio Perez’s outing at Suzuka has pretty much summed up his second half of the season. After his P2 finish at Monza, his results again went downhill with P8 in Singapore and DNF in Japan. F1 pundit Jolyon Palmer, in his column for the F1 website, did not pull any punches as he claimed that Perez has seemingly forgotten how to race wheel-to-wheel.

Sergio Perez
Sergio Perez (Credits: GPFans)

Perez’s driving abilities have been put on the stand after he was held responsible for numerous collisions in the last few Grands Prix. From forcing Yuki Tsunoda to retire in Singapore to his clash with Kevin Magnussen at Suzuka, Perez’s growing frustration has been very evident. Palmer claimed that while Perez has shown some of the best racing in F1 in the past, his current situation has gone from bad to worse.

“Right now though we’ve had a couple of races where his race craft has gone completely absent and it’s causing a stir… it was also an utterly hopeless move [Perez’s collision with Magnussen] for a driver who seems to have forgotten his race craft,” said Palmer.

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