Sky Sports F1 pundit Natalie Pinkham has told Red Bull to drop Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen’s team-mate, if he loses his runner-up spot to Lewis Hamilton.
Perez is currently 40 points ahead of third-placed Fernando Alonso, but Pinkham believes that the Mercedes man will run Verstappen the closes this season – which could seal Perez’s fate.
“It’s controversial, but I’m going to say that Lewis Hamilton will finish runner up,” Pinkham told the Sky Sports F1 podcast.
“The reason I say that is because I fear that the Aston Martin decent run form is over, whether it is to do with this flexi wing being outruled or whether they’ve just gone down a bit of a cul de sac in terms of development and it’s been exaggerated by the fact that others have gone well, the likes of McLaren.
“But I will caveat that with saying that if Perez doesn’t finish runner up, he should lose his seat – because this [car] is an unbelievable piece of machinery.
“And I do believe that Perez has the ability, the talent to do it, so if he doesn’t then I’m afraid that is the end of his career at Red Bull.
“So I think probably Perez will do it, because he has the talent and the car to do it, but I’m just being controversial.”
