Johnny Herbert labels Sergio Perez “damaged goods” | “A broken man mentally”

Ex-F1 driver Johnny Herbert believes Sergio Perez is now “a broken man mentally” despite Red Bull’s commitment to him beyond the summer break.

Red Bull confirmed to Crash.net that Perez will continue to race for the team in the second half of the season.

F1 now embarks on a summer break - three weeks off before the Dutch Grand Prix at the end of August.

Before the official shutdown, Red Bull boss Christian Horner met with Helmut Marko to discuss Perez’s future.

For now at least, Perez will remain at Red Bull alongside Verstappen.

However, Herbert believes Perez shows no sign of improvement, describing him as “damaged goods”.

“Sergio Perez was the worst performing driver at the weekend again. He went from the front row backwards and that is not what teams are expecting from their drivers,” he said.

“It is horrible to say but it is like he is damaged goods at the moment. He is a broken man mentally.

“There will normally be a performance clause within any contract and that could allow Red Bull to terminate Perez’s contract because his performances have not been good enough for the last couple of years.”

Herbert feels Red Bull should have replaced with Yuki Tsunoda, not Daniel Ricciardo, who was thought to be the favourite. 

“Red Bull should replace Perez with Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo isn’t good enough,” he added. “Has Daniel earned a place at Red Bull? I don’t think so, at least not yet. He has not been strong enough against Yuki Tsunoda. Yuki is the one I would give a go to. His racing has improved. 

“It would not be the Daniel of old who would be up against Max. The pressure on Max is huge. The Red Bull dominance of old has gone. That is not happening anymore. It’s all on his shoulders. 

“You need two drivers to get as many points as you can, if you are not going to win a race as Max has been doing for the past couple of seasons.

“When you get to that situation a team has to make a change but their choices are few. It looks like it will be either Ricciardo against whom there is a question mark, or Yuki.”