Perez finished seventh in Sunday’s Belgian Grand Prix after starting second on the grid, a performance Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko described to Sky Germany as “completely collapsing”.
Perez has not finished on the podium since the fourth race of the season in China in April. After finishing fourth in Miami in early May, he has finished seventh three times, eighth twice, 17th once and retired twice.
Perez’s poor results have led to Red Bull coming under pressure in the constructors’ championship – McLaren have reduced their lead to just 42 points and will take the lead before the end of the season if their current rate of gain continues.
Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by 78 points and has won seven of this year’s 14 races.
However, amid a slump in form for Red Bull, the three-time champion has not won since the Spanish Grand Prix in June, five races ago.
Red Bull had been considering whether to drop Perez and replace him with either Ricciardo or their reserve driver Liam Lawson.
Just two months ago, Perez signed a new contract with the team aimed at keeping him at Red Bull to the end of 2026.
After the race in Belgium, Perez’s patience with continued questions about his future appeared to run out.
“We have too much going on in the team and a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation,” he said.
“This is the last time I will speak about the future. So just to make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking anymore. I will not answer any more questions about the future.”
2024-07-29 19:50:34
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