Why is Chico Perez risking his future at Red Bull in the next three races?

The Mexican’s poor plan cannot be underestimated: 5 points out of 86 are up for grabs in the last three races, including one with Sprint, while Red Bull and Max Verstappen have confirmed the defense of their titles.

This has not only raised concerns about the Austrian team’s desire to remain 1-2 in the World Drivers’ Championship, but has also raised alarm bells for 2024 with McLaren’s recent resurgence and the improvements that both Mercedes and Ferrari could bring to the team in the final five. 2023 races.

To Chico’s bad streak, we have to add the comments of Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who said that the best thing Perez could do is race without Verstappen’s supervision, suggesting that a change of team might be the best thing for him. Perez’s future and that he will not comment on his continuity in 2024 before the Mexican Grand Prix.

Why would Chico Perez risk his future at the next three races (US Grand Prix, Mexican Grand Prix and Brazilian Grand Prix) if he has a contract with Red Bull for 2024?

The best Red Bull car

For a simple, simple reason: Chico Perez may be driving the best car Red Bull has ever produced in its Formula 1 history.

Red Bull dominates the other nine teams so much so that it has – or despite Chico – 657 points and is 331 points ahead of Mercedes, the second best team. And 359 for third-placed Ferrari. This advantage will grow in the remaining five races.

The combination of the car with Max and Checo allowed Red Bull to win 16 out of 17 grand prix in the season. And three of the four Sprints.

With such a dominant car, Chico has only managed to add 224 points and although he is second in the Drivers’ Championship, his lead over Lewis Hamilton – with five grands prix and two sprint races to go – stands at 28 points.

“I’ve never in my career been associated with a team that managed to win the first 13 races,” RED technical director Adrian Newey said. “Before, it was like the first six races or something like that, but nothing like that.” The car was designed for motorsport.

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How is Chico doing in Austin, Mexico and Brazil?

In nine appearances at the Circuit of the Americas, Chico has been in the points zone on seven occasions, only going without scoring in 2014 (DNF) and in 2012 where he was 11th, and the notable thing is that the Mexican has not achieved any results at all. , Ignoring what was achieved in 2012, the Guadalajara driver always finds a way to finish the race in a better position than the one he started, and when that is not the case, at least he maintains it.

Taking into account his performance in 2022 in which he finished ninth and finished fourth, the Mexican is expected to perform well in Austin, and what also needs to be taken into account is that this year, unlike last year, there is a fast race in Austin.

The Mexican Grand Prix also brings back fond memories for Perez: in 7 starts at the Hermanos Rodríguez Circuit, Chico has come out of the points only once (DNF in 2018), despite having classifications outside the top 10 on three occasions (2016, 2018 and 2019). ).

Chico’s best performance in his domestic career came after arriving at Red Bull, where he twice qualified fourth and finished third on the podium.

At Interlagos, it is somewhat complicated, because the Mexican is not performing as well as in the previous two races. Although he had a good debut with Red Bull in 2021, in 2022 he was unable to reach the position he needed to maintain. On second place. In the Drivers’ Championship.

Chico made 11 appearances over the weekend in Brazil, and of those 11 appearances, he has only qualified into the top 10 four times, including the last two for Red Bull (3rd in 2021 and 9th in 2022).

In racing, it’s quite the opposite, Perez has only come out of the points five times, including a DNF in 2013, but the expectation is that he is always working to improve the position he starts from.

In the sprint races, the man from Guadalajara had mixed results, in 2021 he finished 3rd and finished 4th, while in 2022 he was in 9th place and managed to move up five places to 5th.

Chico has a contract, but…

After winning the 2022 Monaco GP, Chico and Red Bull announced a two-season extension of the Mexican’s contract with the team until the end of 2024, which at the time of this article will secure his seat for 2024, but throughout its history in Formula 1. We know that Red Bull tends to be impatient With bad results.

From Christian Klien in 2006 to Nyck de Vries this season, Red Bull drivers who do not live up to expectations tend to be fired by the team, and sometimes (as in the case of Gasly in 2019) if the results are not favourable, the change occurs in the middle of The season or before (at least Daniil Kvyat in 2016 and De Vries in 2023).

The return of Daniel Ricciardo coupled with the good emergence of Liam Lawson puts the Mexican in an uncomfortable position, with Verstappen and Tsunoda safe (at least until 2024 Yuki due to his Honda affiliation), Red Bull theoretically has three two-seater drivers and Chico’s poor streak after the Italian Grand Prix could He turns the scales against him.

There are still five races and two races to go and Chico still has a 30-point lead over Lewis Hamilton and the logical thing is that the Mexican will continue in the team if he can maintain a 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship for Red Bull (something they have never achieved), but if the results continue The bad is in the accumulation, expectations are that Hamilton will overtake the Mexican and if that happens, his future with Red Bull may not go beyond December of this year.

Whatever the final outcome of Chico’s season, the reality is that his future within Red Bull, and perhaps within Formula 1, depends on what he can achieve in the next three races.