Red Bull's Helmut Marko shares blunt assessment of Sergio Perez's 2024 F1 campaign
Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko bluntly talked about Sergio Perez's gap to teammate Max Verstappen as one of the main reasons for the team's failure to win the Constructor's Championship in the 2024 season. After another strong start to the campaign, like in 2022 and 2023, the Mexican driver slipped in his form drastically.
The six-time race winner had scored four podiums in the first five races, including P2 three times and P3 in China, but was unable to replicate that form for the remainder of the season.
Perez ultimately finished the season in P8 with 152 points and only managed to score 48 points in the last 18 races, which included four Sprints. While appearing on the Inside Line podcast, Marko assessed Perez's season and analyzed the Austrian team's failure to replicate things from 2022 and 2023 in 2024, saying:
"I mean Checo was more than 280 points behind Max. If you compare the other three top teams the biggest difference is Piastri and Lando and I think it's maybe 60 or maybe 80 points, so 200 points more explains why we lost the constructor's championship."
Marko also provided an update regarding Sergio Perez's future with the Red Bull F1 team in his column for Speedweek and wrote:
“We will be announcing news on the driver pairing for next year in the next few days. There’s a lot of speculation about this, including rumours about possible transfer fees, which are complete nonsense."
Former Haas F1 team boss blasts Sergio Perez's 2024 campaign
Former Haas F1 team principal Guenther Steiner stated that Sergio Perez should pay the bonuses of the team members in Milton-Keynes if he fails to secure his drive for the 2025 season with Red Bull.
While appearing on the Red Flags podcast, the Italian-American assessed:
"Pay the bonus to the guys! Especially now, even if he doesn't drive next season, he'll get fully paid."
Steiner further added:
"I would really be surprised if Checo comes back next year. The damage for Red Bull from not winning the championship is not just financial. It's also the reputation.
"Of course, they won the driver's championship, and they didn't win the manufacturers because they were racing only one and a half cars instead of two. At some point, someone needs to take responsibility for that," he added.
Sergio Perez signed the contract extension with Red Bull ahead of the 2024 Monaco Grand Prix weekend which enabled him to race for the Austrian team until the end of the 2025 season, at the very least.
However, due to some performance clauses, there is a possibility that he might lose his seat to either Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda and move into an ambassadorial role for the Milton-Keynes outfit.