"Of course, we have to look at the overall driver situation for 2025, we have a few drivers to choose from, but in the case of Sergio Perez, it is clear that a seventh-place finish from second on the grid is not what we were expecting."
That is the rather blunt assessment of Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko in the aftermath of the 2024 Belgian Grand Prix and the ongoing debate around Perez's Red Bull future.
Perez's form has nosedived since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, eight races ago, scoring just 28 points as Red Bull has seen its lead in the constructors' evaporate to just 42 over McLaren, given Perez's under-performance.
He is the only driver from the top four teams yet to win a race this season, and has not scored a podium since third in April's Chinese Grand Prix.
Heading into the summer break, Perez finds himself in seventh place in the drivers', some 146 points behind team-mate and championship leader Max Verstappen, who is on 275 and has seven wins from 14 races.
As RacingNews365 has previously reported, Perez's contract, which was renewed at June's Canadian Grand Prix, features clauses which state he must be within 100 points of Verstappen and five places after the Belgian GP. He has failed to meet both of those clauses.
A meeting will be held between Marko and Red Bull boss Christian Horner on Monday to evaluate the situation and for a decision to be taken.
Further complicating matters for Perez is that a test will be held at Imola on Wednesday 31st July featuring the 2022 AlphaTauri machine, with Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson driving.
It has been touted as a potential shoot-out to replace Perez, with Red Bull also featuring a stocked junior line-up of Isack Hadjar, Arvid Lindblad and Ayumu Iwasa, who are all eager for a chance, although Lawson remains first in line.
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What did Perez say of his Belgian GP?
At Spa, Perez's weekend started well when he qualified third-fastest, but lost out on pole to Charles Leclerc by just 0.011s after Verstappen's penalty was applied.
At the start, he was edged out for second by eventual winner Lewis Hamilton, and slowly drifted backwards in the race, finishing last in class of the top four teams, although he did bank the fastest lap.
Reflecting, Perez remained defiant as speculation swirls on his future.
"I've said it before, I had a good qualifying and it doesn't change anything," Perez told media including RacingNews365, before shutting down further questions around his future.
"We have too much going on in the team, and a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation, so this is the last time I will speak about the future [in this media session].
"The break comes at a good time for the team and for myself, and there is plenty of stuff that we need to go through."
As for his race, Perez explained how he was at a loss to explain an early lack of straight-line speed as he fell from the front-row to seventh.
"It was a very disappointing race, I was struggling a lot on the straights," he added.
"I didn't know what was going on and thought I had a battery issue in the first couple of laps, and had to save it, but once I managed to clear it and charge the pack a bit, I had pretty much the same pace as Lewis and Charles, I was staying there.
"But in the second stint, jumping on the medium tyre with all the traffic behind made it really, really difficult and it was quite tricky.
"We did quite a short stint as well, so we were just not good at all with tyres, and the balance was there as well."
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