David Croft shares feeling ‘within the team’ as Red Bull face Sergio Perez decision

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Sergio Perez is facing arguably the biggest weekend of his Formula 1 career at the Belgian Grand Prix. His performance could well determine whether he continues with Red Bull beyond the summer break.

Executive director Helmut Marko has repeatedly stated that he’ll sit down with Christian Horner early next week to make a decision on Perez. It’s emerged in recent races that the Mexican is under real threat of being dropped.

The 34-year-old only signed a new contract with the team last month. But his spiralling form has forced them to consider a remarkable change in the summer break.

Since his last top-six finish at the Miami GP in early May, Perez has just scored 21 points in seven races, including a Sprint weekend in Austria. This has put Red Bull at risk of losing out on the constructors’ championship.

Indeed, McLaren cut their advantage to 51 points with a one-two in Hungary last time out. Perez finished a respectable seventh but he could have done better had he not crashed out of Q1.

Miserable Saturdays have been at the heart of his recent woes. He’s been eliminated in the first segment of qualifying at four of the last seven rounds.

David Croft says Red Bull ‘want Sergio Perez to stay’

Speaking live on Sky Sports F1 during the second practice session at Spa, David Croft shared his view of the mood within Red Bull. He believes that there’s little ill feeling towards Perez.

Instead, they’re willing him to improve. They don’t want to change their driver line-up midway through the campaign.

But equally, they recognise that he’s not performing at the level required. It will cost Red Bull about £3.8m to pay off Perez, around half the price of losing out on the constructors’ title.

“I think, within the team, they want Sergio Perez to stay,” Croft said. “But he’s just not producing the results that are good enough.”

Perez made a solid if unspectacular start to the season with three runner-up finishes and four podiums in five races. That’s exactly the kind of points output Red Bull need, but progress from rival teams has seen him fall down the order.

Ted Kravitz concerned by Sergio Perez radio message at Belgian GP

It seems reductive to suggest that everything rides on one weekend for Perez. But the summer break is the only major opportunity for change, and he could still save himself if he shows he’s made a breakthrough with the RB20.

Equally, it’s hard to see him surviving any more mistakes. Will Buxton thinks it’s ‘curtains’ for Perez if Max Verstappen starts ahead of him despite receiving a 10-place grid penalty for an engine change.

Red Bull may have tried to develop the car in a direction that suits triple world champion Verstappen. But they seem to have made it more difficult to drive in both camps.

On Friday, Ted Kravitz expressed his concern after Perez complained about a lack of confidence on corner entry. He’ll have spent Friday evening trying to get the bottom of this issue with his engineers, but it wasn’t a radio message that augured particularly well.