F1 fans stunned by ‘terrible’ Red Bull decision that cost Sergio Perez during critical Belgian GP

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The last thing Sergio Perez needed to secure his Formula 1 future was a disappointing Belgian Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez has underperformed in his Red Bull for some time now and currently sits 7^th in the Drivers’ Championship.

He was briefly in 8^th before George Russell was disqualified after winning the Belgian Grand Prix from teammate Lewis Hamilton who inherited his second victory of the season.

Considering Perez started on the front row of the grid at Spa, it’s not a good look that he wasn’t even in the conversation for the win after the first few laps.

He immediately lost out to Hamilton from the start before being overtaken by McLaren’s Oscar Piastri.

It wasn’t long before Russell got him too and Red Bull decided to pit the Mexican driver before he held up teammate Max Verstappen in the battle with Lando Norris.

Perez eventually sunk to 8^th and although the gap between him and the rest of the front runners isn’t realistic due to a late pit stop to nab the fastest lap off Norris, it’s a sign of how far off the pace he is that his best use in the race was stealing one point from Verstappen’s closest rival in the Drivers’ Championship.

Red Bull fans have reacted to one decision that the team made during the race that they think sabotaged Perez’s efforts.

His performance was nowhere near good enough and Christian Horner’s verdict on how Perez fared will be a worry.

Perez has a crunch meeting with Red Bull over his future on Monday and will at least point to one strategy decision that the team made that didn’t help him out at Spa.

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F1 fans criticise Red Bull for Sergio Perez strategy call

During the second stint, Perez was quickly losing time to the front-running cars and was attempting to hold off Russell down the main straight before turn four.

Eventually, the Mercedes found its way past his Red Bull and he dropped off the back of the British driver extremely quickly.

Verstappen was the next car approaching and he had Norris on fresher tyres closing the gap to him.

So, at the halfway stage of the race, Perez was told to pit, putting him completely out of sequence with everyone around him.

Red Bull then tweeted the following message to their users and the responses weren’t positive: “Time for Checo to come in for some hard tyres.”

@Majkfit: “You doing such bad decisions with Perez lol”

@javillalobosj: “That medium didn’t work at all.”

@PapiHorner: “Did him dirty with the mediums.”

@ShBismyname: “What terrible terrible management.”

@AndrewTurmer: “Cost Max 3 seconds and let Lando get DRS on Max. Dreadful from Checo and the team.

@ItsKelvinChumba: “Shoulda left Perez to keep Norris behind.”

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Red Bull have a crucial decision to make on Sergio Perez before the Dutch Grand Prix

The choice Red Bull made to pit Perez when they did hampered the rest of his race and left him vulnerable to Sainz when they were racing for 7^th due to the Ferrari driver being on newer tyres.

Russell – before being disqualified – showed that with the right tyre management, a one-stop strategy was more than possible.

By bringing in Perez so early, he was immediately at a disadvantage, particularly as his tyre management is normally such a strong aspect of his racing.

Red Bull know Perez can’t keep going on like this and the longer they leave it to make a decision, the more pressure it puts on Verstappen to singlehandedly keep their title hopes alive, but also on the new driver to get straight up to speed.

It’s not a comfortable position for the team to be in, but Red Bull have proven time and time again in the past that they’re not afraid of being ruthless.