Marko delivers crucial Perez Red Bull contract update

Red Bull advisor Dr. Helmut Marko has revealed that an evaluation on Sergio Perez's performances will take place during the upcoming summer break. 

It is understood by RacingNews365 that Perez has been told by Red Bull to improve his performances prior to the upcoming summer break, with there being several clauses in his new 1+1 Red Bull contract. 

Breaching a clause could result in the driver not competing for the team next season and could, in theory, see him lose his seat mid-campaign.

One of the clauses is that Perez needs to be within 100 points of Max Verstappen going into the upcoming summer break, which takes place after races in Hungary and Belgium. Following the British Grand Prix, Perez is 137 points behind. 

Another clause is that it is believed he needs to be within five places of Verstappen in the championship. That is currently the case with Perez in sixth, although both Mercedes drivers are within eight points.

Marko acknowledged that every F1 contract has exit clauses and revealed that Perez's future will be discussed after the next two races. 

 “All Formula 1 contracts have exit clauses, most of them related to performance or let’s say for the top drivers," Marko told GrandPrix247.

"As I mentioned before, we will have an evaluation during the summer break and then we will make a decision."

A potential option to replace Perez is reserve driver Liam Lawson, who conducted a test in the RB20 on Thursday following the British GP and will complete another test after the Belgian Grand Prix.

“First we have to see," added Marko. "Lawson is testing at Silverstone on Thursday. And yeah, so two more races and there will be more outings with Lawson. There’s also Yuki Tusnoda who is doing very well."

Tsunoda radio language

As pointed out by Marko, RB's Yuki Tsunoda is another potential candidate. Tsunoda has already been given a new contract for 2025 and is excelling this year. 

He is comfortably out-performing Daniel Ricciardo and has scored nine points more than the Australian this season. 

Tsunoda is driving the best he ever has in F1, something which is believed to be partly down to his new nature over the radio. 

In his first F1 seasons, the Japanese driver was fiery over the radio. Baring a recent blip in Austria, Tsunoda has been better behaved and more calculated when speaking to the team, something Red Bull offered him support on through mental training.

Tsunoda is not the only Red Bull driver to have caused the company radio headaches, as its F2 driver Isak Hadjar had a similar problem. 

“We had a lot of arguments with Yuki, we also brought him together with a mental trainer because firstly, shouting was stupid and then he was getting slower," continued Marko. 

"That’s what worried me most. We taught him: If you tell an engineer the car is shit… What should he do?

“You must give detailed technical information. You have to concentrate and find out exactly what the problems are. And now I think, but it’s basically if you talk to Yuki privately he’s not shouting, but he has an aggressive way of talking. 

"And of course, over the radio. With Isak, with French emotion, it has the same effect. So we also put him together with mental trainers to stop that.”