Mexican Grand Prix: Red Bull’s Sergio Perez crashed out of the first quarter of the race on home soil

MEXICO CITY — A season that Sergio Perez described as “bad” took another turn for the worse on Saturday as he qualified 18th in the home race.

Perez failed to advance during Q1, finishing off teammate Max Verstappen’s time by 0.8 seconds in the same session.

The result will do little to calm the hype that has been surrounding his future all season.

Although Perez has a contract until 2025, Red Bull are believed to be evaluating Liam Lawson at right-back as a potential replacement for next season.

“It’s obviously very disappointing,” Perez said after the hearing. “It’s a big award that I want to do really well, it’s this award. Unfortunately, it’s been really tough and difficult, this event.”

Perez noted that he had been suffering from the same car problem for some time.

“I’ve been struggling a little bit with braking. Every time I try to hit the brakes and hit them, I put a lot of energy into the tires, and it makes it very difficult for me to stop the car.

“It’s been like this for the last three races, where I haven’t been able to stop the car. I have to adjust the brakes a lot, and that’s something we can see in the data, but we’re not able to fix it at the moment.”

Red Bull technical director Christian Horner has rejected suggestions that Red Bull is looking at alternative options.

“Chico is our driver,” Horner said on Friday. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s competitive. He’s hungry. He’s not happy with where he is right now. As a team, we’re doing our best to support him.”