Sergio Perez with his visor raised, sitting in his Red Bull RB20
Former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner has admitted that he didn’t believe Red Bull Racing would retain Sergio Perez after the 2024 summer break — but he still doesn’t feel Perez can perform.
Further, Steiner said the Mexican Formula 1 driver is “clearly in a situation where he cannot get out,” much like Daniel Ricciardo.
Guenther Steiner: Sergio Perez in a ‘situation he cannot get out’ of
In an interview with RacingNews365, Guenther Steiner was candid in sharing his thoughts about Sergio Perez — including his shock that Red Bull announced the Mexican racer would continue with the team after the summer break.
“I said live on German TV ‘I don’t think we’ll see Checo after the summer break,’” Steiner said.
“But I think 90 percent of the people in Formula 1 said that, if not more than 90 percent, because his performance is just not good.
“All the messages we got in Belgium at the weekend from Christian Horner and Helmut Marko were along the lines of ‘we need to make some changes,’ and that’s how I took it.
“I didn’t make it up because I can’t judge whether Checo should stay there or not, and I don’t have a say in that decision.
“But the message was: ‘Yes, there are going to be some changes.’ I was as surprised as you guys when I read it.
“Nothing against Checo, but he just didn’t perform,” Steiner continued.
As Perez’s season faced a downturn starting at the Monaco Grand Prix, many pundits assumed the driver would be nixed from Red Bull; after all, it was understood that there were performance clauses in Perez’s contract that would have allowed Red Bull to drop him after the Belgian Grand Prix.
Though Perez took home seventh in Belgium, it was not enough to satisfy those performance clauses. Still, Perez remains.
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Steiner also compared Perez’s situation to the one that plagued Daniel Ricciardo during his tenure at McLaren. The Australian driver was in a great team, but he just couldn’t seem to understand how to make his car work for him.
“[Perez] is clearly in a situation where he cannot get out, a bit like Daniel,” Steiner claimed.
“I did not expect him to be there until the end of the year. But I am sure they know what they are doing.”
Still, Steiner remains confident in Perez’s ultimate skills as a driver, going so far as to admit that he had considered signing the Mexican racer to the Haas team.
Even though Red Bull has confirmed that it will retain Perez, there is still reason to believe the remainder of 2024 will be an uphill battle for Checo.
