Red Bull is to review Sergio Perez' performance in the Belgian Grand Prix, as Helmut Marko insists the Mexican "completely collapsed" in the final stint.
Under growing pressure of being dropped over the summer break, Perez appeared to have turned things around on Saturday when he claimed third on the grid for the race, though he would start from the front row alongside Charles Leclerc after teammate Max Verstappen's 10-place grid penalty.
Beaten at the start by the Ferrari driver and Lewis Hamilton, Perez held on to third until the first round of pit stops, after which he dropped to fifth. On Lap 21, after being passed by George Russell and Verstappen, Perez pitted again re-emerging in eighth.
Rising as high as sixth, once the final pit stops had been completed he had dropped to eighth, pitting shortly before the end for new softs in order to claim the point for fastest lap.
While overtaking proved unusually difficult this year, the team clearly feel that starting from the front row far more was possible.
"It was a really bad race for us," said the Mexican at race end. "It started well on the first stint, but then the second stint was really complicated with going onto the medium compound.
"It really hurt a lot when I had to push, the degradation was just quite high," he added. "We had to do quite a short stint unfortunately, and I think that compromised the race time.
"We were just out of sync, I think," he continued. "Jumping onto the medium tyre with all the traffic behind, it just made it really, really difficult, very tricky. We were just not good with tyres today, balance wasn't there as well.
"I don't know why we went so short," he insisted. "I think we were obviously very compromised by having just two sets of mediums. I was just struggling a lot in the race. I don't know what was going on. We had to save battery early on in the first couple of laps, and it was just very weak on the straights.
"Once I managed to clear it, charge it back a bit, I was pretty much the same as Lewis and Charles, I was staying there. But ultimately, we didn't have the pace today.
"I think Mercedes' pace was very impressive. We couldn't match the Ferraris either. There are plenty of things we need to analyse, I think it was not a perfect execution," he sighed. "It's something that we will get together as a team and obviously understand and learn from it."
"Sergio had the opportunity to take a good result from second place," Helmut Marko ominously told Sky Germany. "Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Especially in the last stint, he completely collapsed, where he set 1:48 lap times.
"What looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn't materialise in the race."
"Max drove a good race from 11th to fourth," said Christian Horner, "finishing ahead of his nearest championship rival so extending his lead there. For Checo, obviously second to seventh, but with the fastest lap.
"We need to have a good look at that," he admitted. "Obviously, we didn't want to go from second to seventh. We need to go through it all and have a good look.
"Obviously we need both cars scoring," he added. "We can see McLaren have taken, I think, another seven or eight points out of us today in the constructors, and we need to stop that.
"We've got to bounce back after the summer break," he continued. "We need Checo up there. He was great in qualifying, unfortunately today hasn't quite worked out.
"Checo's had a tough run over the last few races," he said. And what's so confusing for us is the season started so well for him, and then tailed off. He did a super job in qualifying, obviously, we need to go through and understand you know, the issues in the in the race. We've got the time to do that and analyse that and, you know, work with him.
"We're constantly analysing, we're constantly looking at things," he added. "Yeah, we've got a meeting tomorrow, but it's not just about Checo. It's going to have other topics on the agenda as well, which we always do going into the summer break. So for us, extending the lead going into summer break for Max will give him a better a better rest.
"For us, the focus is on the constructors that we've seen another seven or eight points taken off us again today. We need to start, you know, we need to turn that around coming out of the break in Zandvoort."
With the meeting scheduled for today (Monday) at which both Red Bull and its sister team will be discussed, Marko said: "For us, the situation is such that we will also go through the overall situation for 2025. We have a number of drivers and we have a concept.
"Of course, every result is important for Sergio, and eighth place from second on the grid is certainly not what we expected."
Asked about his future, Perez said: "I think 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 around it.
"So this is the last time I will speak about the future. To make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking anymore, I will not answer any more questions on the future."
As Horner made clear, the team needs both drivers scoring points, which means, if it is to fend off McLaren (and others) in the remaining ten races, Perez could be dropped over the summer break. Daniel Ricciardo has been linked with the second seat, as has Yuki Tsunoda, though Marko appears to favour Liam Lawson.
"Checo is a great team player, and he's a massive team player," said Horner. "And that's why he was selected. That's why we took him at the end of 2020 to put alongside Max and you know, he's won six, seven races for us.
"Second in the World Championship last year, goodness knows how many podiums, has been the most successful combination we've ever had as a as a driver pairing. And then what's frustrating for everybody is Checo struggling because nobody wants to see him struggle. Everybody wants to see him succeed.
"The team has been and is right behind him. Everybody wants to see him, you know, succeed, because it hurts seeing him in the situation that he is."
Asked about the prospect of the Mexican being dropped, Horner replied: "Nobody wants to make that decision. Obviously you guys talk about it every day, but in the team, we want to get him going.
"He's acutely aware that we need both cars performing, which is what we had at the beginning of the year. And that's where we need to get back to."
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