Calls for Sergio Perez to get ‘Ricciardo treatment’ after latest F1 disaster

The F1 world has finally drawn a line in the sand after Red Bull’s Sergio Perez suffered yet horrific low in what has been a disastrous season.

Another day, another disaster for Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

In the first day of the Qatar Grand Prix weekend, a sprint race weekend, the 35-year-old Mexican has faced yet another qualifying nightmare and will start from 16th in Saturday’s race.

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In a bit of too little too late, McLaren’s Lando Norris topped the time sheet for the sprint qualifying, ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell and Norris’ teammate Oscar Piastri.

Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Leclerc were fourth and fifth respectively, while newly crowned 2024 world champion Max Verstappen was sixth.

But with question marks over his seat, it was Perez that was once again the story for all the wrong reasons after another abysmal performance.

Perez, who has missed Q3 in regular qualifying for four of the last five Grand Prix weekends, was playing with fire when he was well off the pace in SQ1.

Far from pushing to the top of the time sheet, Perez was middle of the pack and needed a great final lap.

Enter Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who, despite sitting towards to top of the times, tried to get a final flying lap in, tried to overtake Perez down the straight, only for the Mexican to cut him off.

Even though Leclerc didn’t ultimately need the lap and dropped out of the flying lap, pushing Perez got the Mexican a little hot under the collar.

“I don’t know what Leclerc was doing,” Perez said over team radio after he missed the time.

Speaking on Sky Sports, David Croft suggested that “Perez was right in the way of Leclerc.”

Jenson Button replied: “That’s probably not helped either of them, especially Charles. But that still would have hurt Checo a little bit.”

Croft replied: “I think they were both on a flying lap and Leclerc abandoned his lap because of what happened.”

Perez blamed Leclerc for putting pressure on him. Photo: Fox Sports

But Perez wasn’t buying it.

“We left a little bit late,” Perez said after the session. “We had an issue with one of the anti-roll bars and then to get my final lap, we were all opening gaps and then Charles came.

“We were fighting into Turn 1 and so on, and lost a couple of tenths there, enough to be knocked out unfortunately.

“It was a shame because I felt like we really progressed with the car from P1 to Qualifying. We had a lot more potential and it’s a shame that we just ended up here.”

While Perez only missed SQ2 by 0.013 of a second, he was just behind Alex Albon’s Williams and potential successor Liam Lawson in the VCARB.

“In a Red Bull, you’d expect more progression than Sergio was able to show,” Croft said.

And his team principal Christian Horner appeared to agree.

“I’m not sure what was going on with Charles — unfortunately Checo just hasn’t managed to get enough out of the car to get through the SQ2,” Horner said.

“So, frustrating to lose him in SQ1. So we’ll have a look at the data and see what we can change after the sprint race tomorrow.

“Checo desperately needs a good result. I mean he’s had a horrible season since Monaco so he desperately needs to get a big result here or next weekend.”

It’s far from the ideal start to Perez’ weekend. Photo by Mark Thompson/Getty Images

Fans were not having it though, calling for Perez’ head.

“Sergio Perez low-key needs to get dropped,” one fan wrote.

“Sergio Perez is about to get the Ricciardo treatment, paid $20mil to just GTFO. No way is he in that car or any other next year,” another commented.

A third posted: “Sergio Perez can blame other aspects like Leclerc but the fact is others managed to get the lap in and he didn’t. It’s not just a one off, it’s a trend. His poor qualifying has continued all season. The stats are very worrying.”

The latest disaster comes a week after Perez was trolled on the Las Vegas Sphere after crashing out of Q1 and simply must be closing in on seeing the driver sacked.

Despite having signed a two-year extension earlier this year, Perez has been the biggest disappointment on the grid.

Red Bull, who had been racing for its third straight constructors championship, is currently third behind McLaren (608) and Ferrari (584) on 555 points.

This is despite Verstappen wrapping up the drivers’ championship last week and sitting on 403 points.

Perez has only earned 152 points and sits eighth on the drivers’ championship standings.

In Perez’s favour is that the contract has been lodged with the Contract Recognition Board leading to speculation sacking the Mexican could cost the team $10m to buy out his deal.

Williams fill in Argentinian Franco Colapinto has been heavily linked to snatch the seat.