Mika Hakkinen says Sergio Perez has given Red Bull ‘terrible’ telemetry issue before Sao Paulo Grand Prix

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Sergio Perez is entering a desperate phase at the Sau Paulo Grand Prix, if he wasn’t there already. He’s now on the verge of losing his Red Bull seat.

A rumour ‘erupted’ in the paddock that Red Bull could axe Perez after Brazil. His replacement, likely Liam Lawson, would then have three weeks to prepare before competing in the final triple-header.

The likeliest outcome, though, is that the Mexican finishes the season. Red Bull have already fallen to third in the constructors’ and they won’t sink any lower.

With McLaren now 54 points up the road, it’s unlikely that a new arrival would help them overturn the deficit. It could actually be more damaging to a young driver like Lawson to rush the change.

Perez has not yet conceded defeat in his battle with the 22-year-old. In fact, the bullish veteran has repeatedly stated that he’ll be in the car next year because he has a contract.

But Christian Horner and Helmut Marko have publicly said otherwise, insisting that the race is open. In Mexico, they watched him produce one of his worst weekends of the season so far as he qualified 18th and then came home last.

Sergio Perez’s data is useless to Red Bull and Max Verstappen, Mika Hakkinen says

Speaking on the Drive to Wynn podcast, double F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen highlighted the biggest issue with Perez. Rather than being the requisite ‘three-tenths’ behind Max Verstappen, he’s fallen close to a second adrift.

As a result, the data from his car is of little use to Verstappen. They’re operating in different leagues.

Last weekend in Mexico, the world champion was hardly able to run in FP1 due to a power unit issue. But he wasn’t able to lean on the telemetry from the other side of the garage.

“If he’s two, three-tenths behind Max, I think that would be fine,” Hakkinen said. “That kind of information, what they can collect from the data will move the overall team forward in the development of the car.

“But he’s like eight tenths, one second behind, which means the data they collect from the car, the loads on the suspension under braking, in the cornering, you can’t compare to Max. That’s terrible.”

Why Christian Horner and Helmut Marko disagree on Sergio Perez’s future

Podcast host Justin Bell thinks Perez will be ‘traumatised’ by what happened in his homeland. Red Bull would have hoped that the support of the crowd ignited him, but instead he arguably hit a new low.

In Perez’s defence, any hope of a recovery was dashed when he sustained sidepod damage in a collision with Lawson. Marko has accepted Lawson’s apology for the incident.

Perez was furious over the radio, calling his challenger an ‘idiot’. This may have been a deliberate attempt to discredit him.

As it stands, Horner and Marko disagree about Perez. The former wants to give him every chance to improve, but the latter is ready to cut ties.