The moment Perez spiralled into the Red Bull abyss

There was one moment in the 2024 F1 season which ultimately doomed Sergio Perez at Red Bull - and it came far later than you might think. 

Perez's form going into the summer break had put his Red Bull future in doubt, with the team not yielding the axe after the Belgian GP, giving the Mexican until the end of the season to save himself. 

His average finishing position in the 14 races from second in the Bahrain opener to seventh at Spa was a respectable 5.1, which increases slightly to 5.3 if the sixth and eighth places in the Netherlands and Italy are factored in from the next two races.

The trouble for Perez was that whilst he was finishing in the mid-low points positions, rivals such as Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz were all finishing above him, making his points return seem even more meagrer. 

It must be said that the RB20 was also in the middle of its slump in form around this time, so that must also be factored in, with one race Red Bull hoped for Perez to turn things around being the Azerbaijan GP. 

Perez is actually the only non-repeat winner in Baku, taking victory in 2021 and 2023, which would prove to be his last F1 win, and the '24 event was going well.

The end of Perez at Red Bull

Perez, always a strong performer on the coast of the Caspian Sea, had, for the first time, in the season, got Max Verstappen covered. 

He qualified fourth, over two-tenths clear of Verstappen on pure pace, and looked set to bank a much-needed and required podium in the race as he battled with Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz for second and third in the closing laps.

Leclerc was set for second, with Sainz vs Perez the main fight, but on lap 50 of 51, disaster struck as the two collided on the exit of Turn 2, being spat hard into the concrete wall, destroying both cars.

It was a pure racing incident with Perez drifting right and Sainz left out of the corner, but in the end, Perez left Baku with nil poi and perhaps whatever confidence he had rebuilt following the genuinely outstanding weekend he had put together up until that point, firmly shattered. 

His final seven races read 10th, seventh, 17th, 11th, 10th, DNF and DNF, with the damage firmly being done by the Baku smash. 

That was the moment Perez's Red Bull career truly ended.