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SPA, Belgium — Sergio Pérez looked ready to make a late case for his Red Bull Formula One future on Saturday after putting his car on the front row of the grid for the Belgian Grand Prix.

He flourished in damp conditions to grab P2 on the grid after Max Verstappen’s penalty, his best qualifying result since April in China. For all the recent noise and scrutiny over his future, Pérez finally had a response. As he put it: “It’s not like I forgot how to drive.”

But Sunday’s race only undermined Pérez’s case to keep his place with Red Bull, and at the worst possible time — the eve of the summer break. He slid backward as the race wore on, crossing the line eighth.

“Based on his starting position, we didn’t envisage finishing eighth,” Christian Horner, Red Bull’s team principal, conceded after the race. A disappointing result, whatever way you look at it.

And one that leaves Red Bull with another reason to move on.

Pérez’s backward slide

Red Bull has been working hard to understand why Pérez has struggled after a strong start to the season. But with McLaren closing in the constructors’ championship, taking another eight points out of Red Bull’s lead, the pressure is growing.

Pérez went into the race hoping to make the use of the slipstream from pole-sitter Charles Leclerc’s car on the long run to the first corner, just as he did last year, and manage an overtake. It would have been the first lap he’d have led this season. (Verstappen has led 448.) Instead, he lost out to Lewis Hamilton and quickly fell out of DRS range, reporting on the radio he was struggling for straight-line speed due to his battery running out.

With McLaren closing in the constructors’ championship, taking another eight points out of Red Bull’s lead at Spa and reducing it to just 42 points, the pressure on Pérez is growing. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Pitting from third place didn’t help Pérez, who struggled in traffic. He looked set to try a move on Lance Stroll going into the final chicane, only to back out; when Stroll pitted, Pérez lost DRS, meaning Oscar Piastri could then pick him off. Russell also got Pérez for position, before Red Bull brought him into the pits just as Verstappen got close enough to try a move.

The next stint wasn’t much better. Pérez dutifully moved aside for Verstappen, but couldn’t put up a fight to the chasing Lando Norris to protect his teammate. Carlos Sainz then relegated Pérez to eighth with seven laps remaining before Red Bull took the free pit stop to at least get the fastest lap point. (Pérez was promoted to seventh after the race by George Russell’s disqualification.)

Pérez, once dubbed the ‘Mexican Minister of Defence’ for his efforts to keep Hamilton back in Abu Dhabi 2021 and help Verstappen win the title, got overtaken six times on Sunday.

He admitted it was a “very disappointing race,” citing the battery struggles as well as being out of sync on strategy. “I think we were just not good with tires today,” he said. “(The) balance wasn’t there as well. So, yeah, (there are) plenty of things to analyze.”

A new boundary

Pérez remained adamant the result changed nothing about his future. “We have too much going on in the team, a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation,” he said. “So this is the last time I will speak about the future. Just to make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking any more.

“I will not answer any more questions about the future.” It was the first time he’d set such a boundary within a media session.

Pérez has maintained throughout this recent run, and all the mounting speculation, that he felt secure in his position. On Thursday he was even as strong as saying he was 100 percent sure of being in the car for the next race at Zandvoort, and that he had nothing to worry about as he headed on his summer holidays.

But this summer break was always going to be the juncture where Red Bull would take a decision on the future. With McLaren closing in — it’s just 42 points behind after Spa — there’s a championship at stake unless Verstappen’s teammate can make significant contributions. Sunday was Pérez’s chance to do exactly that, and he failed to make the most of it.

(Pérez and Verstappen finished eighth and fifth in Sunday’s Belgian GP, allowing McLaren to further close the gap in the constructors’ championship. (Mark Thompson/Getty Images)

Horner confirmed post-race that the team has a meeting planned for tomorrow, but said it was “not just about Checo,” with other topics to discuss ahead of the summer break. He reiterated the need to get to the bottom of why Pérez was struggling so much. “We need to work with him, and continue to support him to understand what isn’t quite working at the moment,” he said.

Red Bull has so dearly wanted to make it work with Pérez. Horner hailed him as a “great team player” after the race and called the partnership with Verstappen the most successful in the team’s 20-year history. “Nobody wants to see him struggle,” Horner said. “The team has been and is right behind him, everybody wants to see him succeed, because it hurts seeing him in the situation that is.”

It does hurt, which makes the possibility of making the call to cut ties all the tougher. “Nobody wants to make that decision,” Horner said. “Obviously you guys talk about it every day. But in the team, we want to get him going.”

Verstappen, who finished fifth after starting eleventh, was complimentary of Pérez post-race, going as far as saying his weekend was “very positive” and that the team’s main concern should be the car performance. “It just shows that we have difficulties with the tires,” Verstappen said. “I think that should be our main priority.”

Who could replace Pérez?

If Red Bull does decide the Pérez situation cannot continue, be it at tomorrow’s meeting or through its planned analysis, the difficulty is that it can’t guarantee an uplift in form.

Daniel Ricciardo said last week he was treating the races in Hungary and Belgium as “two of the most important of not only my season, but potentially my career,” and that he wanted to “give it hell.” Not only was this a chance to stake a claim for that Red Bull seat, the one he’d always targeted but seemed so far out of reach prior to Pérez’s slump, but also to ensure he didn’t lose his own spot with RB that has also been in the spotlight this year.

Ricciardo’s haul of a single point across those two races may not seem like a strong case, but Horner thought he’d “done alright.” His Hungary race was compromised by RB’s strategy, and he only had a single, used set of hard tires for the race at Spa, putting him at risk of the late pass by Esteban Ocon who had two fresh sets and a better strategy. Ricciardo’s form may not be that convincing, but if Red Bull wants an experienced driver and a chance to see if there is still some of the ‘old Daniel’ in there from his 2018 peak, there would be logic to his choice.

The other option is Liam Lawson, Red Bull’s reserve driver, who impressed in his five-race stint deputizing for Ricciardo last year, and recently drove the Red Bull RB20 in a filming day. While undeniably talented, giving him the toughest seat in F1 — being Verstappen’s teammate — would be a huge amount of pressure to put on a 22-year-old for only his sixth grand prix. Yuki Tsunoda doesn’t seem to have a look in despite already doing enough to earn a new RB contract for 2025.

Both Ricciardo and Lawson are set to take part in a filming day at Imola in this year’s RB next week. While limited to 200km, the running will offer the chance to compare Ricciardo and Lawson in equal machinery, even if Horner was reluctant to talk up its importance. “It’s a filming day, so they’ll be filming,” he said. “It’s all about content.”

Red Bull wants to support Pérez and help him turn things around. But that patience can only go so far — and Spa will have tested it at exactly the wrong moment for Checo.

(Lead photo of Sergio Pérez: Jayce Illman/Getty Images)