Red Bull civil war as Helmut Marko slams star for 'complete collapse' at Belgian GP

Helmut Marko took no prisoners when discussing Red Bull driver Sergio Perez's performance at the Belgian Grand Prix. Marko, who advises the team and mentors Perez's team-mate, Max Verstappen, also piled fresh pressure on the Mexican as he fights for his future.

Perez's Red Bull contract reportedly includes a clause which allows the team to sack him if he falls more than 100 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers' Championship.

Things were looking up for Perez when he qualified on the front row at Spa-Francorchamps. But he gradually tumbled down the pack on a frustrating day for Red Bull, crossing the line in eighth before George Russell's disqualification bumped him up to seventh.

Ominously for Perez, the gap between himself and Verstappen, who took fourth in Belgium, now stands at 146 points. And Marko gave him no sympathy by describing his performance as a 'complete collapse'.

"Sergio had the opportunity to take a good result from second place," the 81-year-old told Sky Germany. "Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. Especially in the last stint, he completely collapsed, where he set 1:48.00 lap times. What looked so positive in qualifying unfortunately didn't materialise in the race."

On Perez's future with the team, Marko added: "For us, the situation is such that we will also go through the overall situation for 2025. We have a number of drivers and we have a concept. But of course every result is (important) for Sergio, and eighth place from second on the grid is certainly not what we expected."

Despite driving one of the fastest cars on the grid, Perez has not broken the top five in any of the last eight Grands Prix. And of the eight stars driving for the leading teams - Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and Ferrari - Perez is dead last in the points standings.

"It was a very disappointing race," he admitted. "It started well, I was just struggling a lot on the straights. I think we were just not good with tyres today. Balance wasn't there as well, so plenty of things to analyse on our side. On Saturday I had a good qualifying, a good day. It doesn't change anything."

Perez's mood turned spiky when asked about whether he will definitely be a Red Bull driver when F1 stars reconvene after the four-week summer break. He said: "I think we have too much going on in the team and a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation.

"This is the last time I will speak about the future, so just to make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking anymore. I will not answer any more questions about the future."