Jenson Button warns Red Bull over Sergio Perez: "They can't let it go on forever"

2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button believes Red Bull will have no choice but to replace Sergio Perez if his poor form continues.

Perez has scored points just twice in the last five races in what has been a sensational dip in form.

The Mexican struggled once again at Silverstone as he was knocked out in Q1 before finishing well outside the Top 10 - he was lapped twice in the process.

Perez’s lack of form means Red Bull’s position at the top of the constructors’ championship isn’t entirely secure.

With McLaren emerging as a regular race-winning outfit, and have two drivers capable of scoring big points, Red Bull’s lead could come under threat in the second half of the year.

Speaking over the British GP weekend on Sky Sports’ F1 coverage. Button described Perez’s performances as a “massive issue”.

“Massive. It’s a massive issue,” he said. “This was a terrible weekend. It was unlucky in some ways. This isn’t going to happen every weekend.

“McLaren taking that many points out of them? It’s big. And Mercedes didn’t have two cars that finished, but if their reliability was there, again it would have been a big chunk taken out of Red Bull.

“They are on the back foot, they are the third-highest scoring team at the moment, over the past five or six races. He needs to be scoring some points, at least, even if he’s not finishing behind Max.”

Button - who was teammates with Perez at McLaren in 2013 - believes Red Bull will have to replace him if Perez’s non-scores continue with two more rounds before the summer break.

“They can’t let it go on forever. If at the next race he isn’t scoring points again? Soon enough they’ve got to get him out of the car, and put someone else in,” he added.

“It’s tough. I know it’s not a nice feeling for a driver, it’s horrible. But for them, the constructors’ championship is important.”

Red Bull handed Perez a new two-year deal ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix - a surprising move given he had struggled in the previous two rounds.

However, reports have since emerged that there are a number of performance clauses in Perez’s contract which allow Red Bull to make a change should they want to.

Former W Series driver Naomi Schiff is perplexed that Perez’s new contract didn’t hand him a boost of confidence given his future with the team until 2026 is secure.

“Not only because it’s more competitive, but because the Red Bull is less dominant than it’s been in the past,” she explained. “Max is having to out-drive the potential of the car, and Checo hasn’t been able to do the same.

“We saw the same last year. What I don’t understand is why a contract extension would not give him more confidence. Last year we felt he was over-driving to prove himself. He’s not having to do that.

“There will be performance clauses, for sure. They made the decision to keep him, that should have given him confidence, not taken the toll it has taken.”