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Schumacher says "Red Bull will make a decision" on Perez after Mexico
Ralf Schumacher believes that Red Bull Racing will "make a decision" on Sergio Perez's future at the Austrian team after the Mexican finished right at the back of the grid at the Mexican Grand Prix. It was the worst possible result for the 34-year-old at his home Grand Prix in what was a really tricky weekend for Red Bull, with teammate Max Verstappen only able to finish P6 after accumulating 20 seconds worth of penalties, with Schumacher believing that the Dutchman deserved those penalties.
Perez's dreadful weekend started after he notched his fifth Q1 elimination of the 2024 season, this time in front of his adoring home crowd at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez circuit. Starting from P18, the race went even worse than qualifying, getting a five-second penalty after overshooting his starting grid slot before the start of the race.
After that, he then damaged his sidepod while battling Liam Lawson in the VCARB, meaning his RB20 lost lots of performance. As a result, after a penultimate lap pitstop to try and steal the fastest lap point away from Charles Leclerc, which he could not get, he finished last out of all the classified cars in P17.
Verstappen also had a tough weekend in Mexico after his two penalties of ten seconds, both for forcing title rival Lando Norris off the track while battling with the McLaren driver, resulting in him dropping down the field.
"Street fighter" Verstappen's moves were "purely deliberate"
At the German beach of Sky Sports, Schumacher had this opinion on the moves by Verstappen which led to his penalties: "That was purely deliberate. Max is just a street fighter when it comes to racing. He takes all the risks here and he can, because he is leading the world championship."
The former F1 driver then moved on to Perez and his weekend in Mexico City, and he does not see a future for the Mexican in F1: "Next year he won't drive a metre in the car anyway, I'm pretty sure of that. I even think he won't finish the season."
"Red Bull will make a decision after this weekend. It all makes no sense any more, for either party. Not even for Perez. The poor man is under so much pressure, that he is not going home beaming with joy. This is supposed to be fun. It's also a disaster financially for the team. If they want to compete with Ferrari, they need to change something soon," he concluded.
This article was created in collaboration with Nicole Mulder
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