Steiner: I was surprised when I heard that Perez stayed

On the first day of the championship’s summer break, Red Bull Racing confirmed that Sergio Perez would spend the remaining ten races of the season with the team, a news that surprised many.

In eight stages in a row, the Mexican racer’s results did not please his fans, the team or himself. Starting from Imola, he only scored 28 points and dropped to 7th place in the personal classification. If the situation does not change and the rivals of the championship team continue to make progress, there is a risk that Red Bull Racing will miss the constructors’ championship at the end of the season. McLaren is already only 42 points behind.

It looked like the results of the Belgian Grand Prix would be the straw that broke Red Bull’s patience: Max Verstappen started from 11th position at Spa, but took 4th place, while Perez showed a decent 2nd result in qualifying and only finished seventh in the race.

There have been suggestions that the Mexican’s place will be taken by Liam Lawson or Daniel Ricciardo after the summer break, but the status quo remains – at least for now.

Gunther Steiner was among those who predicted Perez’s imminent dismissal, and now taking part in the RacingNews365 podcast, the former Haas F1 boss was forced to comment on the situation again:

“I said live on German TV: ‘I don’t think we’ll see Sergio after the summer break.’ But I believe 90% of the people in the paddock, if not more, said the same thing, because he’s simply not showing the results he needs.

Everything Christian Horner and Helmut Marko said during the Belgian weekend came down to one thing: “We need some changes.” That’s why I started talking about it. I didn’t come up with this myself, because it’s not up to me to decide whether Sergio should stay with the team or not. I have no say in this, but Red Bull has made it clear that there will be some changes.

And I was surprised, like everyone else, when I read that he stayed. I have nothing against Perez, but he just doesn’t perform well.”

Apparently Red Bull has chosen to maintain the team composition, as this would at least be an expression of stability against the background of other changes that are taking place, as it is already known about the departure of specialists such as Adrian Newey and Jonathan Whitley. In Milton Keynes they still hope that Perez can return to his old form, because when Sergio is at full strength, he regularly rises to the podium.

But this is no less important for the Mexican himself, if he expects to continue his career in Formula 1, and in an unfavorable scenario it could end. This cannot be ruled out if he does not meet Red Bull’s expectations in the remaining races of the season, starting with the Dutch Grand Prix, and the team ultimately loses to McLaren in the fight for the Constructors’ Championship.