A few weeks ago, when Red Bull decided to complete a two-year contract extension with Pérez, almost no one inside and outside the paddock was optimistic about the Mexican's performance in the past two years, and the renewal itself was more like a product of the conflict between Horner and Marko, Horner openly disagreed with Marco on the issue of whether to renew his contract with Pérez, and Marco seemed to be waiting to see Horner's joke, sure enough, I didn't expect this slap in the face to come so early, Pérez rushed into the gravel buffer zone because of loss of control in qualifying Q1 of the British Grand Prix, He had to face the embarrassment of being eliminated in Q1 again, and in the main race, he will start from the last row.
As the track began to dry out in Q1, the team decided to switch to soft tyres for the Flying Lap, but his slip at the copse corner cost him control of the car and perhaps the chance to remain in the RB20 cockpit. And Horner also showed more helplessness when he saw this scene, no one else was to blame, and he could only blame himself for looking away, and when more people inside and outside the paddock thought that the Mexican was a dou who couldn't be helped, the British must have regretted why he renewed his contract in the first place, and it was an unprecedented two years.
On top of that, Pérez's second absence from Q3 doesn't look like an isolated incident, as his top finish since returning to Europe was only 7th in Austria, thanks to the retirements of Verstappen and Norris, as well as two consecutive finishes in Monaco and Canada.
In terms of drivers' points, he has only managed 15 points in the last five races, compared to 103 points before Imola, and the Mexican's chances of earning points at this weekend's British Grand Prix are slim unless there is a safety car or rain to help.
On top of that, in terms of qualifying, his top grid pick after Imola was only eighth in Austria, and his failure to finish Q3 in Monaco, Canada and Great Britain makes it hard to believe this is his qualifying position in RB20.
There is no doubt that his return to the track in the UK will put him at risk of losing the Red Bull driver's seat, given that he is less than a month away from completing his contract extension with the team, and his performance in the UK is likely to have triggered the performance clause under his contract, meaning that his fate is no longer in his own hands, but on how Horner treats him, unable to take the lead ahead of two McLarens, two Ferraris and two Mercedes for a long time, and Pérez's performance can hardly be called a passing performance anyway.
According to the latest report from Racing.com, after Saturday's qualifying, there was already a discussion within the team about whether to replace Pérez with Lizardo or Lawson, and perhaps under pressure, Horner had to choose to give in, and now the team may not be talking about whether to replace Pérez, but who should replace him and when.
Pérez insisted the rumours had "nothing to do" with his qualifying performance, arguing that Friday's practice pace was more representative of his true level, but he must have forgotten that people tend to assess a person's true ability more by the mistakes you make than how well you perform at other times. And he thinks he's going to unlock a tenths of a second performance advantage in the race, but it doesn't seem like many people will believe his words, and no matter how much he downplays his current situation, he may already feel that his limit is near.
Obviously, the problem with Pérez at the moment is that his promise to Red Bull is no longer believed, what the team is actually seeing is his performance on the track, obviously hiding his ears and stealing the bell will not help him solve the problem and allow the team to continue to trust him, maybe after more than two seasons of struggle, it is time for Pérez to choose to give up, sometimes it takes courage to choose to give up, but it is often the wisest choice, do you think Pérez should choose to retire now? Please leave your views in the comments section.