{"id":16345,"date":"2023-10-07T21:30:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T01:30:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=16345"},"modified":"2023-10-07T21:01:59","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T01:01:59","slug":"sergio-perez-under-pressure-as-red-bull-gives-boost-to-lawson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/10\/07\/sergio-perez-under-pressure-as-red-bull-gives-boost-to-lawson\/","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez under pressure as Red Bull gives boost to Lawson"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Sergio Perez suffered another disappointing event in the F1 Qatar Sprint, as pressure continues to mount from Red Bull.<\/h3>\n<p>A difficult qualifying in Qatar put Perez in a relatively underwhelming starting position for today&#8217;s Sprint race. This impacted his prospects of securing points for Red Bull, especially after losing crucial positions on lap one.<\/p>\n<p>In theory, the Mexican driver was the only person capable of denying Verstappen of the F1 World Championship. However, it cannot be said this was a realistic or even primary aim for the 33-year-old.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, this weekend represented a chance for Sergio Perez to alleviate some of the speculation surrounding his future. This would have been especially meaningful given <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/10\/03\/sergio-perez-calls-out-f1-media-for-unequal-coverage\/\" target=\"_self\">his recent criticisms of the media&#8217;s coverage of his performances.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, an unlucky incident with Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg took away a chance of points on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"YYx5JYVLRRxhPau5pvMiLQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1712266330\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'YYx5JYVLRRxhPau5pvMiLQ',sig:'Kk9tnAlEwiHDqQTQL7xiifanCyK_PAchDahz5nUyH9c=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1712266330',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the media after the Sprint, Perez expressed his frustrations:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;It was very difficult to start on the medium tyres with all the Safety Cars there wre. It was difficult to recover temperature on the mediums.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Once we started I was going to pass Hulkenberg and then Ocon, there was contact between them, I was alongside and Ocon hit into me.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;[There is] a lot of damage to my car. Unfortunately, there is a lot damage, and we will see if we have more provlems tomrorow&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We are more competitive in the race, the car is more predictable too. Once the tyres are up to temperature, we were fast and had pace, but unfortunately we couldn&#8217;t use it.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3>Pessimism from Red Bull<\/h3>\n<p>Heading into this weekend, there have been a series of comments from Red Bull concerning Perez &#8211; either directly or indirectly. The first is a general scepticism from Helmut Marko about his chances of finishing P2 in the Championship.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, these comments are far from ideal. Marko seems especially aware of the threat Lewis Hamilton poses in the W14 machine.<\/p>\n<p>With that said, the more pressing statements were not in direct relation to the 6-time race winner. These quotes were also from Helmut Marko, who outlined some of the long-term expectations at Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Red Bull advisor is regarding Liam Lawson, who he says will almost certainly have a seat in 2025. <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2023\/09\/24\/lawson-receives-red-bull-guarantee-for-2025\/\" target=\"_self\">LWOS has previously reported that Lawson has received guarantees<\/a> from Red Bull for the 2025 season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-16033\" src=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Liam Lawson on the grid of the Japanese Grand Prix, 2023\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-600x400.jpg 600w, https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/12\/2023\/09\/SI202309240328-1200x800.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/p>\n<h3>Increasing pressure<\/h3>\n<p>To a large extent, these assurances contributed to his reserve contract for next season. However, more recently, Helmut Marko has insisted that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kleinezeitung.at\/sport\/motorsport\/formel1\/6327772\/Ersatz-fuer-Sergio-Perez_Helmut-Marko_Liam-Lawson-sitzt\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lawson will earn a promotion by 2025 at the very latest.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Several interpretations can be made here, with the first being that Red Bull is anticipating changes within the next twelve months. More pressingly, it seems logical to infer that a driver change will likely occur at the main team.<\/p>\n<p>After all, the decision to offer Ricciardo an AlphaTauri deal was to determine if he could drive at Red Bull for the major honours is F1.<\/p>\n<p>With the Australian confirmed for next year&#8217;s campaign, there will be an unprecedented level of scrutiny across the two Red Bull-owned outfits. This will only worsen the frustration that Perez experiences after sessions such as the Qatar Sprint.<\/p>\n<p>It must be stressed that one bad performance does not set anything in stone for next season. Still, the potential for Sergio Perez to lose P2 in the Championship &#8211; and the possible consequences at Red Bull &#8211; cannot be overlooked.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sergio Perez suffered another disappointing event in the F1 Qatar Sprint, as pressure continues to mount from Red Bull. A difficult qualifying in Qatar put Perez in a relatively underwhelming starting position for today&#8217;s Sprint race. This impacted his prospects of securing points for Red Bull, especially after losing crucial positions on lap one. In [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":16359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2186,68,23,78,72],"class_list":["post-16345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2023-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-red-bull-racing","tag-sergio-perez"],"modified_by":"Vincent van der Hoek","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}