Marc Priestley shares whether Red Bull should sack Sergio Perez now after Hungary qualifying crash

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Sergio Perez is under increased scrutiny following his crash during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

The Mexican made an error while improving his lap time in Q1 when brief spots of rain hit the circuit, causing him to lose control of his Red Bull RB20 at the exit of Turn 8.

After sustaining significant damage to the rear of his car, Perez was unable to continue and is forced to start the race from the midfield in 15th place on the grid.

It was a significant crash for the Mexican at a time when there is pressure on him to deliver after four Q1 exits in the last six races, while he has only scored 33 of the last 178 points for Red Bull.

Former F1 driver Anthony Davidson believes he can bounce back from the crash, but former F1 mechanic Marc Priestley believes Red Bull must decide on his future imminently when speaking on the BBC F1 Chequed Flag podcast.

Marc Priestley believes Sergio Perez ‘has got to go’ after F1 errors

Red Bull has been reluctant to comment any further on whether it will decide on the Mexican’s future, with team advisor Helmut Marko saying they plan to evaluate Perez after the summer break.

Priestley believes they must make a decision now or risk it impacting their chances in the Constructors’ Championship later on in the season.

“If I was running Red Bull and making a decision what I need to do with my drivers, for me, Perez has got to go. He’s just signed a contract extension over get-out clauses within that, it feels like his performance will definitely trigger one of those get-out clauses,” said Priestley.

“If you’re Red Bull, you’ve got to get rid of him because it’s only having a negative impact on the team’s performance in a Constructors’ battle, which is getting tighter and tighter because the competition is getting closer every race.”

Red Bull face title challenge from McLaren

McLaren has proven that it can sustain a title challenge after it locked out the front row with both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in Hungary.

Although Norris’ best lap was just 0.046s faster than Verstappen, there was clearly more time to come after a late red flag from Yuki Tsunoda crashing prevented any improvements while the track conditions got better and the drivers had the best of the soft tyre rubber.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

McLaren is currently 78 points behind Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship and with both Norris and Piastri scoring points, without Perez the team faces that gap being slashed in the next couple of races before the summer break.

Red Bull has a pool of drivers it could choose from to replace Perez, and if they do decide to replace the Mexican it would mark it the first time the team has made a mid-season driver change since Alex Albon replaced Pierre Gasly in 2019.