F1: Perez should lose his ride if he does not finish 2nd

Sky Sports F1 pundit Natalie Pinkham says if Sergio Perez cannot finish 2nd in the 2023 F1 Driver’s Championship, he should get sacked by Red Bull.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

After winning two of the first four races this season, Perez’s Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen has won all the races and completely dominated the season.

The Mexican driver has not won another race since Baku.

Talking about the second half of the season in the latest Sky Sports podcast, Natalie Pinkham thinks that Lewis Hamilton could beat Perez to 2nd in the championship.

“It’s controversial, but I’m going to say that Lewis Hamilton will finish runner-up. The reason I say that is because I fear that the Aston Martin decent run form is over, whether it is to do with this flexi wing being banned or whether they’ve just gone down a bit of a cul de sac in terms of development, and it’s been exaggerated by the fact that others have gone well, the likes of McLaren,” Pinkham said.

“But I will caveat that with saying that if Perez doesn’t finish runner-up, he should lose his seat – because this [car] is an unbelievable piece of machinery. And I do believe that Perez has the ability, the talent to do it, so if he doesn’t, then I’m afraid that is the end of his career at Red Bull. So I think probably Perez will do it because he has the talent and the car to do it, but I’m just being controversial.”

Championship standings after Spa

1 Max Verstappen 314
2 Sergio Perez 189
3 Fernando Alonso 149
4 Lewis Hamilton 148
5 Charles Leclerc 99
6 George Russell 99
7 Carlos Sainz 92
8 Lando Norris 69
9 Lance Stroll 47
10 Esteban Ocon 35
11 Oscar Piastri 34
12 Pierre Gasly 22
13 Alexander Albon 11
14 Nico Hulkenberg 9
15 Valtteri Bottas 5
16 Zhou Guanyu 4
17 Yuki Tsunoda 3
18 Kevin Magnussen 2
19 Logan Sargeant 0
20 Nyck De Vries 0
21 Daniel Ricciardo 0

Constructors

1 Red Bull Honda 503
2 Mercedes 247
3 Aston Martin Mercedes 196
4 Ferrari 191
5 McLaren Mercedes 103
6 Alpine Renault 57
7 Williams Mercedes 11
8 Haas Ferrari 11
9 Alfa Romeo Ferrari 9
10 AlphaTauri Honda 3