F1 fans unhappy with Karun Chandhok after what he said to Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo

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Red Bull will be prepared for relentless questions about the future of Sergio Perez at the Hungarian Grand Prix this weekend. It emerged at Silverstone that Perez was at risk of losing his seat.

The Mexican only signed a new contract last month, but his spiralling form may trigger a break clause. If he remains more than 100 points behind Max Verstappen after the Belgian GP, then the world champions could axe him during the summer break.

Drivers elsewhere in the Red Bull family will be making their case to replace him. Daniel Ricciardo has been inconsistent at junior team RB this year but won seven races during his first stint at Milton Keynes.

Meanwhile, teammate Yuki Tsunoda has been one of the outstanding drivers in the midfield this year, finishing in the points on six occasions. Tsunoda must convince Christian Horner that he can ‘survive’ alongside Verstappen.

Liam Lawson is something of a wildcard candidate given that he’s carrying out a reserve role this season. But he had a chance to drive Perez’s RB20 at a filming day at Silverstone last week.

Over the weekend, Perez, Verstappen and Ricciardo appeared as part of Red Bull’s show runs at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Team principal Horner was also in attendance.

Karun Chandhok under fire after ‘teammates’ comment to Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo

Speaking on stage at the event, Verstappen suggested that he and Ricciardo could both take part in the Goodwood Revival event in September. F1 pundit Karun Chandhok replied that they ‘could be teammates’.

This was an intriguing remark in light of the current driver situation at Red Bull. But Chandhok subsequently took to X to clarify that his comments had ‘nothing to do with modern F1’.

“It seems like some people have missed the context of my conversation with the Red Bull drivers,” he wrote. “Max said that maybe he and Daniel could be teammates at GOODWOOD REVIVAL [his emphasis] – not F1! If you haven’t heard of it, it’s a fun event for cars pre-1966, nothing to do with modern F1…”

Many F1 fans weren’t convinced by this explanation, however. @Eduardoperdom07 said he knew ‘exactly what he was trying to say’, while @mariajhoenig13 called for him to ‘take ownership and apologise’.

@memeved said ‘it was clear’ what Chandhok was ‘insinuating’ but backed Perez to ‘do the talking on the track’. @russtapen1 accused the Sky Sports F1 man of ‘hiding behind’ his post.

@mayra_coo took a similar view and pointed out that the former Lotus driver had deactivated the comments. Finally, @grxynovember felt he’d left it ‘too late’ to address the situation.

What happened in Liam Lawson Red Bull test amid Sergio Perez rumours

While Lawson’s RB20 run was a promotional event on paper, there was plenty riding on it. That’s why engineers set him a benchmark time based on Verstappen’s pace.

In the end, he ended up lapping around two-tenths slower than that target. Red Bull were left ‘slightly underwhelmed’ by his showing.

As it turns out, Perez may be saved not by strength of his own performances, but by the doubts around the alternatives. Conversations will inevitably continue into the winter and next season if he can’t improve, though.

Peter Windsor believes Perez might as well ‘stop’ racing if he isn’t fast in Hungary this weekend. In his eyes, it’s a circuit that should suit him better than recent venues.