Spectators watch as the car of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez is removed from the track after he crashed during the qualifying session of the Monaco Grand Prix on May 27, 2023. — AFP
DESPITE signing a new contract with Red Bull in June, Sergio Perez of Mexico is still being questioned about his future from inside and outside the team.
His results have declined as Red Bull have fallen to second place behind McLaren in the constructors’ championship.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull team principal, said that before the Formula One summer break in August, “there was massive scrutiny and pressure being placed upon” Perez.
“It’s a media business that we live in, and that scrutiny can sometimes become overwhelming,” Horner said.
“I know he was struggling with the constant speculation about his job.”
After starting the season with four finishes on the podium in the first five Grands Prix, Perez placed fourth in Miami and eighth in the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix before crashing in Monaco.
The poor results continued after he re-signed. He crashed again in Montreal, and in the subsequent races before the summer break that started in late June, he placed no higher than seventh.
“The speculation was more than I expected,” Perez said in an interview in September.
“I’d just renewed with the team, so I knew exactly what I had signed in terms of the contract. At the time, I was not concerned about it.
“But it got to a point where it was just too much, where it became very difficult to focus on my stuff and a lot of judgment was passed on myself, on my career.”
The pressure was made worse because three-time champion Max Verstappen is his teammate, and Red Bull are defending their team title.
“It’s been tough, very demanding,” said Perez, who joined the team in 2021.
“It’s a team that have a lot of media attention. Every single weekend, your future is in doubt. I was thinking it’s probably not in me anymore, that I cannot drive the car like I used to, that I’m not at the level I once was,” he said.
“It’s hard to explain to people that there’s something going on inside you. With the car, there were races like Silverstone in the damp, where I felt I was going to crash at every single corner. It was just not in me, and it’s not easy. The summer was super hard.”
The day after the Belgian Grand Prix, Horner announced to the team that Perez would continue for the rest of the season.
Horner said the declaration allowed Perez to “go away, reset, refresh and come back with a clear mindset, knowing that he’s got the full support of the team, that he is our driver.”
It was a relief to Perez, who said the speculation about his future affected everything.
“Everyone you talked to had a different opinion, even inside the team,” he said. “People were thinking I wasn’t focused.”
Before the announcement, Perez said he did not want to give up.
Spectators hold up a doll of Perez in the stands ahead of the recent Mexico City GP on Oct 27. — Reuters
“I went through a very difficult period, but I never had a thought in my head about quitting.”
His results since the summer break have not improved. He was sixth in Holland and eighth in Italy, then he crashed in Baku, Azerbaijan. In the past two races, he was 10th in Singapore and seventh in the United States.
Before the race in Baku, Horner said Perez had “made a step forward since the summer break.”
“He’s showing signs of a good recovery,” Horner added. “Hopefully, as we improve the car, that will help some of the issues that he’s been having.”
Verstappen’s results also have dipped. He won seven of the first 10 races but has not won a Grand Prix since June. Then, problems with the car were found during the Italian Grand Prix weekend in Monza in late summer.
After the issues were discovered, Perez said he felt relieved that the problems were not of his making.
“I’m really glad they finally understood the problem,” he said.
“Even some of the engineers apologised to me after Monza when things were a lot clearer on what was going wrong because I had paid a big price before then.”
It was an apology that meant a lot to Perez.
“Luckily, I’ve been in the sport a long time, and I’ve a lot of experience in dealing with things, but sometimes you do feel like you are wrong,” he said.
After the race at Monza, where Verstappen was sixth – 38 seconds behind the winner, Charles Leclerc of Ferrari – Verstappen was critical.
“Last year, we had a great car, which was the most dominant car ever, and we basically turned it into a monster,” Verstappen said.
McLaren passed Red Bull for the team title at Azerbaijan. Red Bull improved in Singapore, where Verstappen finished second, but Perez’s 10th-place finish disappointed.
Pressure is again on Perez, particularly from within the team. Assessing the ideal scenario for next year, Horner said he wanted Perez “to find his form and rediscover the shape he was in at the beginning of the year, and nothing changes.”
“But as we know in this business, two weeks is long term.”
Helmut Marko, an adviser to Red Bull, said neither the driver pairing at Red Bull nor the sister team Visa Cash App RB was certain for next year.
Marko said Perez had fluctuations in performance that are becoming “more unpredictable,” and his only guarantee was if he “performs accordingly.”
Perez said he was “not really thinking that far ahead” to next year.
“I’m thinking on delivering and that we get our season back on track, taking it race by race, and hopefully we are able to confirm the good moments from Baku on different circuits.” — NYT
