"Nobody knows when Sergio Perez will shine or when he will make a mistake" - Helmut Marko's verdict of the Red Bull driver

Helmut Marko has issued an honest verdict on Sergio Perez's race weekend in Hungary. The Austrian wrote in his column for Speedweek that nobody knows when the Mexican will perform or when he will have an off day.

Perez has been a driver under serious pressure at Red Bull for the entirety of the 2024 F1 season. He started the season under pressure because the end of 2023 wasn't good. The team had even brought Daniel Ricciardo into the fold in RB with the aim of evaluating him as a possible successor for the Mexican.

While the Ricciardo experiment failed early in the year, Sergio Perez was shockingly offered a two-year contract extension by Red Bull. The contract extension, however, now seems futile because the Mexican was already struggling prior to the extension, and that hasn't changed.

Heading into the F1 Hungarian GP, reports indicated that Sergio Perez's seat was in danger and he could be replaced during the summer break. The race in Budapest saw the Mexican crash out in Q1 in qualifying, further adding to the pressure.

The race, however, was positive as he made his way through the field and finished 7th. Helmut Marko however, was not impressed. In a brutal verdict of the Mexican's weekend, he said:

"Let's talk about Sergio Pérez for a moment: A GP weekend that was typical of Pérez, I would say, unpredictable - very good on Friday, only just behind Verstappen and with the best endurance runs of all the drivers, then unfortunately a stupid mistake in qualifying, which resulted in 16th place on the grid, followed by a very strong race up to 7th place."

He added:

"He continues to have this up and down, nobody knows when he will shine or when he will make a mistake, he simply lacks consistently good performance."

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Helmut Marko feels defending constructors title much more difficult with Sergio Perez not performing

After the race in Hungary, McLaren closed down the gap with Red Bull in the constructors championship. The gap is now just 51 points, while the drivers' championship feels more secure, with Max Verstappen 76 points ahead of Lando Norris.

Talking about the title battle, Marko feels that the Constructors Championship has been difficult with Sergio Perez not performing.

He said:

"Defending the drivers' title will certainly be less difficult than defending the constructors' cup. McLaren is still scoring points with both drivers up front, and our main problem is that we have scored far too few points with Checo Pérez in the last few races."

Red Bull has been evaluating alternatives for the Mexican by the looks of it and unless Sergio Perez makes drastic improvements he might be out of his seat after the summer break.