Sergio Perez now ‘well into second seat of death spiral’, claims ex-Red Bull engineer

Former Red Bull senior systems engineer Dan Drury believes Sergio Perez is now in need of “something special” to keep his seat with the team beyond F1 2023.

The way Perez’s title challenge has unravelled is really quite concerning, the Mexican racer having gone from sharing two wins apiece with Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to start the campaign, to now being without a Q3 appearance in his last five outings.

佩雷斯已经出现在领奖台上只有一次that run, with Verstappen now on a streak of six victories in a row and 99 points clear of Perez at the top of the Drivers’ Championship.

The Mexican racer does still hold P2 in the standings, Red Bull actively chasing their first one-two finish having produced the utterly dominant RB19 challenger, which the team say secures Perez’s place in their line-up for the remainder of the season.

But, with Perez desperately needing a strong drive as the pressure mounts, the last thing he needed was a crash straight out of the blocks in practice for the Hungarian Grand Prix. Sadly, that is precisely what happened.

PlanetF1.com建议

F1 penalty points: One driver has points added and takes unwanted P1 from Pierre Gasly

F1 2023: Head-to-head qualifying and race stats between team-mates

Perez would attempt to open up the corner too much and dipped a wheel onto the grass at the exit of Turn 4, sending him crashing into the barriers for an expensive shunt.

He would then finish the second Friday session down in P18.

Daniel Ricciardo is back on the grid for Hungary at Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri, with the general belief being that he is auditioning for Perez’s seat.

And Drury, who worked as Red Bull’s senior systems engineer from 2016-2022, believes Perez is now spiralling towards losing his seat on his current trajectory.

“Checo is well into the Red Bull second seat of death spiral,” Drury posted on social media.

“He needs to do something special this weekend or [Helmut] Marko [Red Bull advisor and driver programme boss] will be showing him the door for next season.”

Perez goes into the Hungarian Grand Prix only 19 points ahead of Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso in theDrivers’ standings.

Read next –Hungarian Grand Prix: Charles Leclerc tops FP2 as Max Verstappen misses out on top 10