Martin Brundle gives two reasons why Red Bull haven’t replaced Sergio Perez yet

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Sergio Perez has 273 Grand Prix weekends under his belt but despite signing a new contract that should take him beyond the 300 mark, he may see his career cut short at 275.

That’s because Red Bull are putting increasing pressure on Sergio Perez to perform after another disappointing weekend at the British Grand Prix.

Perez has clauses in his contract allowing Red Bull to drop the Mexican from their driver line-up during the summer break.

One of these clauses requires Perez to be within a certain number of positions of teammate Max Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship.

The other suggests that Perez must be within 100 points of Verstappen which looks incredibly unlikely given the Dutchman’s form this year.

Martin Brundle was speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast about Perez and why he’s still at Red Bull.

There were signs last season that Perez might not be a strong enough driver to help Red Bull achieve their goals.

He suffered a huge slump halfway through the season and only finished 2^nd in the Drivers’ Championship because the RB19 was so dominant over the rest of the field.

Now that Red Bull no longer have that advantage, Perez’s issues have been amplified and the eyes of the world of Formula 1 are on him.

Brundle has explained that he thinks there are two key reasons why Red Bull haven’t already parted ways with the 34-year-old.

It includes one event in particular that’s incredibly lucrative for the drinks brand but Red Bull might not be able to wait that long to benefit from it given how quickly the teams behind them are closing the gap in the Constructors’ Championship.

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

Martin Brundle shares why he thinks Red Bull haven’t fired Sergio Perez yet

Talking about the situation at Red Bull, Brundle said: “We’ve seen that team biff off Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and others, Jean-Eric Vergne and many, many other young drivers despite going far better than that.

“We know that it’s commercially attractive to them, we know that he’s a good foil for Max [Verstappen], he’s normally fast enough to do a good job and bring some relevant information, not fast enough to bother Max particularly.

“And it works for them and they’ve won both championships.

“But all of a sudden, they’ve got some rivals on their hands, they can’t comfortably win the Constructors’ title without Sergio [Perez] being on tip-top form.

“So, the ground rules have changed in that respect and you wonder how long they’ll be able to cope with this.

“With the sponsorship, with Red Bull’s commerciality in North and South America, with the Mexican Grand Prix yet to come, would you really not want Sergio Perez on the grid?

“So, that’s the balancing point. If he was Driver B and none of that commerciality or nationality mattered, they would have replaced him, let’s be honest.”

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

Who could replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull if he loses his seat?

Red Bull will be putting plans into place in case they do need to replace Perez despite the commercial value of having him in the team.

Liam Lawson is a candidate to replace Perez, skipping the RB team entirely to race against Verstappen for the rest of the season.

Lawson has already hugely impressed senior Red Bull staff behind the scenes and is testing the RB20 this year during a filming day.

Daniel Ricciardo would like to throw his hat into the ring to make the step up – as would teammate Yuki Tsunoda – however neither driver appears to be close to a promotion at this stage.

Ricciardo’s future is also in doubt with the Australian needing to impress before the summer break as well.

It will be fascinating to see what happens during the summer break with Red Bull’s racing quartet.