Warning for Sergio Perez? Red Bull to think of driver contracts 'in the summer'

Sergio Perez has had a mixed start to his career at Red Bull Racing. On one hand, he’s finished in the points comfortably every single time. Yet given the competitive nature of both the team and this year’s car, more is expected of the Mexican. Indeed, he is under pressure as it is due to his contract being only for a year. And Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko says the team will only consider their options in the summer.

“We’ll start thinking about it in the summer at the earliest,” he told Formel1.de.

“We are a very sought-after partner on the driver market. I don’t think a driver will enter into negotiations or a deal with any other team until he has tried to come to an agreement with us.

“We are now fully focused on the world championship, and we don’t see any problem there in terms of who will be Max Verstappen’s teammate next year. It will certainly be a competitive guy. But there is still time.”

Where can Sergio Perez improve?

Perez finished fourth last time out in Monaco after pulling off the overcut strategy. This came after a disappointing qualifying performance saw him start the race ninth.

As expected, Marko suggested that Perez must show improvement in qualifying in the coming Grand Prix weekends as his race pace is good.

“Let’s start with the positive, that’s the race performance. It’s very good, sometimes at Max’s level. He proved that in Monte Carlo when we went for the overcut.

“That was three or four laps where he drove the fastest laps overall, with already very used tyres. So the race pace is there.

“The area where we’re still lacking is in qualifying. We need to see an improvement there.”

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen currently leads the world driver’s championship after winning in Monaco. Interestingly, this is the first time since 2018 a non-Mercedes driver is atop the standings.