ABU DHABI Robert Doornbos has warned Sergio Prez that he has ‘one more chance’ to extend his Red Bull career, but he must be ‘more consistent’ to do so.
When he joined Red Bull in 2021, it was said that the Mexican driver would be the second driver alongside Max Verstappen. But while he watched his teammate win back-to-back world titles, Prez was on this season’s grid with high ambitions and dreams of taking on Verstappen for the world title.
Unfortunately, that dream disappeared due to a miserable qualifying run, which meant that Prez was almost mathematically out of the running by the time Formula 1 entered the summer break.
He saved his season, and his career, with second place in the drivers’ standings and Red Bull is confident he will be in the car next season. But with less than half of Verstappen’s points, Prez has already been warned that he will not be comfortable in the RB20.
“What needs to be done in the winter months is how they can prevent us from having another season like this,” Doornbos told Motorsport. “Because the luck that Prez had this year is that the competition dropped points.
“If Lewis Hamilton had had a better season or maybe Charles Leclerc, he probably wouldn’t have finished second in the championship and then you end up third or fourth. Now he can have a bad season and still finish second in the world championship.”
