Martin Brundle’s damning ‘also-rans’ verdict if Red Bull had ‘two Sergio Perezs’

Sergio Perez in the Red Bull garage looking perplexed

Martin Brundle believes Red Bull would be “also-rans” in the Formula 1 results if they had “two Sergio Perezs” given the Mexican driver’s current struggles.

Perez is in the midst of a run of difficult races and has not featured on the podium in the last five Grands Prix, two of which ended in crashes.

Martin Brundle: The team would be also-rans

Such has been his lacklustre form that pundits have questioned whether Red Bull regret their decision to re-sign him to a new two-year contract.

Perez has yet to win a single Grand Prix while his team-mate Max Verstappen is already up to seven and leads the Drivers’ Championship with 227 points, 115 ahead of Perez who is sitting in fifth place.

Verstappen’s points are making the difference in the Constructors’ Championship with Red Bull 63 points ahead of Ferrari. If the team had two drivers scoring at Perez’s rate, they’d be down in third place.

It has Brundle declaring they’d be “also-rans” with two Perezs behind the wheel.

“If you had two Sergio Perezs on Sergio’s current form, the team would be also-rans,” said the Sky F1 pundit.

“Max is really having to stand up in the seat, use all of his talents in qualifying, on the start, with race craft, race pace, and tyre management. He’s having to bring every aspect of his skills and talents out.”

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1996 World Champion Damon Hill went as far as to call Perez’s most recent slump “disastrous” for Red Bull.

“It’s difficult to understand,” he told Sky F1.

“He’s in the best car next to McLaren, but he’s not able to match Max which, now, means four or five grid places.

“It’s disastrous for Red Bull if they want to score maximum points. Helping Max, and defending in races, he’s nowhere near being up to speed.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner accepts the team needs Perez to step up, not just for the points but to give Red Bull alternate strategies as Verstappen has been left to fight McLaren and Ferrari alone.

“We need Checo in the mix. He knows that and the team know that,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com.

“If he’s on the back end of the top eight, you lose strategic options, whether you split your strategies and so on.

“Checo in the first four or five races this year was fantastic. We just need to get him back into that headspace.”