Red Bull told to break Sergio Perez contract and ‘go and get’ former driver back

Sergio Perez in the Red Bull garage looking perplexed

Claiming Red Bull “will” have second thoughts over Sergio Perez given his current results, Michael Bleekemolen has urged the reigning champs to drop the Mexican driver and put Carlos Sainz in the car.

Although Perez returned to Q3 for the first time in four races at the Spanish Grand Prix, a grid penalty for driving a severely damaged car back to the pits in Canada meant Perez lined up in 11th place.

‘People will get second thoughts when they see Sergio Perez’s results’

He worked his way up to eighth place with a three-stop strategy while his team-mate Max Verstappen won the Grand Prix ahead of pole-sitter Lando Norris.

It was the Dutchman’s seventh win for the season as he extended his lead at the top of the Drivers’ standings. Perez, in sharp contrast, has just four podiums and trails his team-mate by 108 points.

Bleekemolen believes the Mexican driver needs a refresher on the basics of racing before he loses his Formula 1 race seat.

“He could visit our karting track once, so he can practice some ideal lines and start to learn some of the basics, because he’ll be done for otherwise. That would be a shame, but that’s the way it is,” the Dutch racing driver told RacingNews365.

“And I have yet to see if his contract will last. People will get second thoughts when they see his results.”

As for who he would put in the car, he reckons Verstappen’s first-ever F1 team-mate Sainz could do the job.

“But then,” he continued, “another question would be: what other option does Red Bull have? Who is fast and good enough for that seat?

“In that case, I would say: go and get Carlos Sainz.

“I would look toward Sainz. He doesn’t have a seat yet. Again, Sainz is not at the level of Max, but he is only a little bit behind. And that’s obviously good for the team, because they don’t want Max to be beaten by a team-mate.

“That’s not going to happen either, so then someone like [Sainz] is good. Sainz doesn’t crash much and I think that would be a good one.”

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For now, it is Perez who is in the car having signed a two-year extension earlier this month. Bleekemolen though cannot see him staying out the two years.

“You do wonder that now,” he said. “I’m sure they will wonder that too, but maybe they will think: ‘we don’t care’. Of course they do care about the Constructors’ Championship and that will bring in money again.

“That will be a downside for Perez then and it might be an exit before 2026 for him. But I think they will be scratching their heads anyway: ‘What should we do for next year?’ Because contracts are made there to be broken, not to be enforced.

“When they’re behind closed doors, they’ll undoubtedly have different things to say about him. Then they’ll probably say: ‘it happened again, his performance lacked again’. That’s what everyone would say, but they obviously cannot say things like that when everyone is watching.”

He reckons it’s Perez’s sponsorship package that is saving his career with the 34-year-old boasting a list of deals that includes Disney, Telcel, Mobil, Claro, Nescafé and KitKat.

“Formula 1 is all about money and Perez seems to bring quite a lot of sponsorship money to the table,” he explained.

“I’m sure that makes a big difference as well. We all know what’s possible with big amounts of money, and the team still knows that as well.

“What can they buy when there’s 10, 20 or 30 million euros coming in? It’s definitely a lot, so that is definitely worth something in the greater scheme of things.

“They could choose Sainz, but that would mean they’d have to pay him and that’ll be a lot. That would then differ entirely from the Perez situation, so that definitely plays a role.”

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