The Mexican GP started off with a bang, quite literally, as home hero Sergio Perez collided into the polesitter Charles Leclerc in Turn 1 itself, making the Red Bull fly off and crash into the gravel, ending his race immediately. It was a race with high stakes and a lot of support for the Mexican Minister of Defense, but it looks like things didn’t go well for him.
Red Bull and Sergio Perez do not share a good relationship currently, and with the rumors flying around in the paddock, this race might just have a huge impact on Sergio Perez. The Mexican driver has a risky seat in Red Bull for 2024 and he needs to close the door for P2.
Why is Red Bull unlikely to continue with Sergio Perez next year?
Red Bull has supposedly given an ultimatum to Sergio Perez who is arguably in one of his worst seasons in F1 with the Mexican driver lagging far behind his Red Bull counterpart and struggling to bring results just when it’s needed. It can be admitted that Sergio maybe be under a huge pressure due to the constant criticism, but in front of his home crowd and in front of the people who simply ‘love’ him, Sergio Perez committed a grave mistake.
Red Bull has warned him time and again, as he is currently being hunted by Lewis Hamilton for the second position in world championship. Perez is only 20 points ahead of Hamilton and there are still 3 weekends left including Sprint race in Brazil.
To add insult to the injury, Perez was earlier outqualified by his AlphaTauri counterpart and one of the strongest suiters for the Red Bull seat, i.e. Daniel Ricciardo. It was a shocking moment when Daniel put the worst car on the grid at 4th on the grid but Sergio Perez could only manage a 7th with the incredibly fast RB19. Further, Sergio Perez’s unnecessary risk made him crash out of the race and increase the suspicions about his future in Red Bull.
Sergio Perez speaks on heartbreaking Mexican GP accident
The race started off and Sergio Perez immediately jumped a few places, going into turn 1 the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc was sandwiched between the Red Bulls as he was trying to fend off Max Verstappen for the lead. However, suddenly Checo turned in on Leclerc causing Perez’s Red Bull to crash out and Charles having an immense damage to the front of his car. The stewards cleared out the incident calling it a race incident but Perez doesn’t seem too happy about his race.
“The gap was there and obviously as a driver you take a risk, going 3 cars into turn 1 with these wide cars and I took a risk that I paid a high price for”, said Sergio Perez in a post race interview.
With the 2023 season ending soon, do you think Lewis Hamilton will be able to take the 2nd spot away from Sergio Perez? Do comment your thoughts on this.
