1996 F1 world champion Damon Hill has stressed that Sergio Perez's current form is "really disastrous" following the Spanish Grand Prix.
Whilst Perez did progress to Q3 for the first time since the Miami Grand Prix, the Mexican started in P11 due to a three-place grid penalty that carried over from the previous round.
Despite having one of the strongest cars on the grid, as proven by Max Verstappen winning in Spain, Perez only recovered to eighth.
Perez completed a three-stop strategy which was not optimal, and left him an entire minute behind his team-mate.
With McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari all appearing to have reeled in Red Bull this year, strong results from both drivers will prove crucial in the constructors' championship fight, leaving Hill to aim criticism at Perez.
"He has the best Formula 1 car apart from the McLaren, but he is not able to keep up with Max Verstappen's pace," Hill said in conversation with Sky Sports F1.
"That means there are usually about four to five grid positions between Verstappen and Perez.
“That's really disastrous for Red Bull if they want to score maximum points, let alone if they want him to have Verstappen's back. But he just doesn't come close to his speed."
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Red Bull 'desperate'
Perez himself described his Spanish GP as a "nightmare", with constant set up changes having been pointed out by the driver as "desperate".
Across both one lap pace and in race trim, Perez was considerably slower than Verstappen.
In the past, being significantly slower than the Dutchman was still enough for a podium, although that is no longer the case due to the improvements which have been made by its rivals.
"Basically explore more like testing probably the car from FP1 to FP2," Perez told media including RacingNews365 about his compromised weekend in Spain.
"I think we've never swung around on setup so many things. So I think we're a bit desperate, I'll say to try and find the balance.
"So we need to review all of that, but I see the light out of the tunnel."
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