Did Perez deserve his latest kicking from Marko after ‘sacrificial’ race strategy? · RaceFans
Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko slated Sergio Perez’s performance after he fell from second on the grid to finish eighth in yesterday’s Belgian Grand Prix.
“Sergio had the opportunity to achieve a good result in second place,” Marko told Sky Germany. “But unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
“In particular, in the final stint, he completely collapsed, at times driving [one minute] 48 lap times. So what looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn’t come true in the race.”
Marko’s comments on Perez’s lap times are not inaccurate. But does his withering assessment of Perez’s efforts also ignore an important aspect of his contribution to the team’s performance?
Perez’s opening stint on the medium tyre compound was reasonable if not earth-shattering. Lewis Hamilton made a slightly better start and used the inside line at La Source to good effect, prising second place from the Red Bull driver’s hands.
From there Perez held on to his third place, falling around two seconds back from Charles Leclerc, who Hamilton demoted to second place on lap three. The Red Bull is undoubtedly a quicker car than the Ferrari at the moment and Perez arguably should have put up more of a fight.
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But at this stage in the race, with the softer rubber degrading quickly, few drivers were pressuring those ahead. Perez also revealed he did not have a full set of Red Bull’s latest parts at Spa – potentially a legacy of his heavy crash in qualifying at the Hungaroring a week earlier.
Perez’s race began to go south when made his second pit stop on lap 11. Unlike most of his rivals Perez took a second set of mediums at this point, but his pace was no better than Verstappen’s on hards.
He was being pursued by Oscar Piastri at the time, and the McLaren driver immediately passed him after they changed tyres on the same lap. From there he slipped back steadily from Piastri, and on lap 20 Russell made his move on the Red Bull driver for fifth place.
By now Perez had dropped back three places from his original starting position, all through on-track overtakes on a day when others were finding it difficult to pass. He had the second-slowest straight-line speed of anyone, 4kph down on his team mate (with a fresh RBPT Honda motor), and complained about his vulnerability in the long acceleration zones during the race.
| Lap: 20/44 PER: 1’49.663 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Russell at 0.4. Max 0.5 behind Russell. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 21/44 PER: 1’54.682 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Russell passes Perez Okay Max at 0.4. |
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| Bird | Mode six, mode six. Box Checo, box. Strat 12 in the pit lane | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 22/44 PER: 2’01.831 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Yeah. We are very slow on the straights. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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On lap 25 Red Bull gave Perez a lap time target of 1’47.5. After lapping a few tenths above this, he hit it on lap 29.
| Lap: 23/44 PER: 1’47.223 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Perez | Do we need to manage? | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 25/44 PER: 1’47.667 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Mode seven for now. Mode seven. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | So matched Sainz there. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Target 47.5, 47.5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 26/44 PER: 1’48.048 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | 19 laps to go, directly racing Leclerc to the end here. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Hamilton also pitted. He’ll be in front of Leclerc. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 27/44 PER: 1’47.625 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Gap to Leclerc 6.5. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
But by now Red Bull were minded to use Perez’s race to his team mate’s advantage. Verstappen was looming in his mirrors and his closest championship rival Lando Norris was gaining on the pair of them.
Knowing Verstappen had to switch back to medium rubber for the final stint, but Norris had a fresh set of hards and could therefore come in earlier, Red Bull saw an opportunity to use Perez to ensure McLaren would not get their man into the pits early to ‘undercut’ them. They summoned Perez in for his second stop, which left him far enough behind Verstappen and Norris that both would come out behind him the next time they pitted.
Now Red Bull had the luxury of being able to pit Verstappen, knowing Perez would wave him by, while McLaren could not do the same for Norris, as he would be let through so easily. Sure enough, when Verstappen came in Perez quickly jumped out of the way, losing almost a second and a half as he did.
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| Lap: 29/44 PER: 1’47.470 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max two seconds behind, fresher tyres. Leclerc’s last lap 47.0. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lap: 30/44 PER: 1’48.878 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max at one second. Stay focused on our race. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Max with DRS. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | So we’re releasing Max into 10. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Release Max into turn 10 and Norris at two seconds. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bird | Norris at two seconds. Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This was the point at which Perez’s lap times rose into the 1’48 range Marko referred to. Red Bull had used him tactically to Verstappen’s advantage but his sub-par pace up to that point, particularly in the second stint, created the conditions for it. The role played by differences between their cars and especially the wisdom of taking mediums for his second stint is up for debate.
Afterwards, however, the writing appeared to be on the wall for Perez. Even before Red Bull moved him aside for Verstappen he was on course to convert a front row start into his eighth consecutive non-top-six result. This in a car which Verstappen reckoned could have won the race from the pole position he qualified on before his penalty.
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After the race Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said Perez’s performance “won’t impact anything.” This is open to interpretation, but Horner said three races ago Perez needed to perform better, and this has not happened. Has another poor weekend merely confirmed what Horner had already resolved to do?
Marko gave further indication that the writing is on the wall for Perez. “The situation for us is such that we will go through the overall situation for ’25,” he said. “We have a number of drivers and we have a concept.
“But of course for Sergio, every result [matters] and eighth place from second place on the grid is certainly not what we expected.”
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2024 Belgian Grand Prix
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