Christian Horner and Helmut Marko disagree on best Sergio Perez replacement if he leaves Red Bull

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Sergio Perez had the perfect opportunity on Sunday to prove his doubters wrong and cement his place in the Red Bull team for the rest of the season.

Red Bull no longer have the outright fastest car on the grid although Max Verstappen’s electric pace in qualifying was incredibly impressive.

The Dutchman would have started on pole position were it not for his grid penalty, but Sergio Perez managed to set a fast enough time to start on the front row.

He was up against Charles Leclerc who wasn’t expecting to be challenging for the race win given Ferrari don’t have the fastest car on the grid.

It was the perfect opportunity for Perez so when he crossed the line in 3^rd after the first lap having lost out to eventual race winner Lewis Hamilton, it was an unfortunate sign of things to come.

Perez continued to tumble down the order and eventually finished the race in 8^th as the worst of the drivers among the top four teams.

He was quickly promoted to 7^th after George Russell’s disqualification and will take little solace from being asked to pit for a third time to steal the fastest lap from Lando Norris.

Perez faces crunch talks with Red Bull over his future and a report from the Dutch outlet Telegraaf has shared more details about what could happen over the summer break.

Christian Horner and Helmut Marko will both have their say on what should happen to Perez moving forward.

Horner tried to be positive about Perez after the race, but Marko provided a much more damning verdict of how Perez performed at Spa.

The only thing that might save him is that the two senior Red Bull personnel haven’t reached a conclusion on which driver should move into his seat if he’s let go.

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Christian Horner and Helmut Marko disagree on best Sergio Perez replacement

The report from Telegraaf suggests that it would be a ‘painful’ decision for Red Bull to let Perez go after handing him a new contract after the Monaco Grand Prix.

Performance clauses in Perez’s contract unfortunately allow Red Bull to let him go before the next race in Zandvoort.

Those include being within 100 points of Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship – he’s currently 146 behind his teammate – and within a set number of positions in the standings of the Dutchman – he needs to be in the top five and currently sits 7^th.

Perez would be sitting 8^th and bottom of the drivers competing with Red Bull were it not for Russell’s disqualification or his unfortunate retirement at Silverstone.

Telegraaf reported that internally, two candidates are being discussed to replace Perez.

‘Multiple sources’ close to the team suggest that Marko prefers Liam Lawson as the driver to put in the Mexican’s seat, but Horner wants to promote Daniel Ricciardo.

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Red Bull face youth vs experience discussion when considering Sergio Perez replacement

It’s not a straightforward choice for the Austrian outfit heading into the summer break, with Yuki Tsunoda the only driver ruled out by Red Bull from their current senior roster.

There’s no guarantee that Perez will be let go despite how far away from Verstappen he is in terms of performance.

Ricciardo has had a solid but unspectacular season and has been outscored by Tsunoda, although he did pick up a handy point at Spa thanks to Russell’s disqualification.

Lawson, on the other hand, would be a huge gamble and while Red Bull are very happy with the Kiwi, his lack of competitive action since his AlphaTauri cameo may count against him.

All eyes will be on Milton Keynes over the coming days to see what decision they arrive at after what will likely be very tense negotiations.