Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has thrown more uncertainty over Sergio Perez’s future with Red Bull, after admitting that the side have a “plan B”.
Perez’s future has quickly become one of the biggest talking points of the season, with some believing that Red Bull won’t honour his contract for 2024.
Perez does have a deal to race for the side next season, which team principal Christian Horner has insisted will be respected.
However, Marko has suggested otherwise, as the Austrian has admitted that in Formula 1 “nothing is 100 per cent certain”.
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Those comments came ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix last weekend, where Perez threw away a podium.
After starting seventh, Perez chose to pit at the end of the opening lap for Intermediates, a move which saw him inherit the race lead at the start of the third lap.
Perez led the race until he was undercut by Max Verstappen, who Red Bull pitted first for slick tyres when the track surface dried.
This demoted the Mexican to second; however, he was still set for a comfortable podium, that is until he span at the opening corner.
When heavy rain returned, Perez failed to slow his car and went off at the opening corner, dropping him to third behind Fernando Alonso.
He then went on to hit the pit wall and speed in the pit-lane, resulting in a five-second time penalty.
This demoted him to fourth at the end of the race, behind Pierre Gasly.
It was another race full of errors by Perez, something which won’t have impressed Marko, who insisted that “performance-related situations” would lead to talks.
“Nothing is 100 per cent certain in Formula 1, it just doesn’t exist,” Marko told Austrian newspaper Kleine Zeitung ahead of the Dutch GP.
“There are always performance-related situations somewhere that need to be discussed.
“We’ll take a look and discuss how to proceed in Zandvoort, then we’ll know more.”
Marko’s warning to Perez appears to have now gone a step further, with the 80-year-old declaring that whilst the plan is to have the Mexican with the team in 2024, he “has to deliver” for that to happen.
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Should Perez not deliver strong results in the remaining nine races, then Marko admits that Red Bull have a “plan B”, in the form of either Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson.
“Of course the goal is to go into the next season with Checo, but he has to deliver for that,” Marko told Sky Sports Germany in Zandvoort.
“With Liam Lawson and Ricciardo there are alternatives; you always have to have a plan B.”