Christian Horner said a Racing Bulls drive was not discussed with Sergio Perez and was not an option to continue in F1.

Speculation surrounding Perez’s F1 future had rumbled on since the first half of F1 2024, with the Mexican racer returning after the summer break against the expectations of many. But, despite that reprieve – and the fact he signed a Red Bull contract extension ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix – Perez remained unable to silence the rumours.

Sergio Perez will not return to F1 with Red Bull B-team

Once more the Red Bull exit talk was loud for Perez as the curtain came down on F1 2024 in Abu Dhabi, the announcement arriving post-season that Perez had made his exit from the team, with Liam Lawson promoted from Racing Bulls to take his place.

Isack Hadjar moves up from Formula 2 to become Yuki Tsunoda’s Racing Bulls F1 2025 team-mate, but Red Bull team principal Christian Horner was asked by Sky F1 whether Perez was a contender to slot in at Racing Bulls.

“I think at the stage that Checo is at in his career, that wouldn’t really have been an option for him,” Horner clarified.

“It was nothing that we really ever discussed, or we didn’t discuss or even talk about.

“So he’s come to this decision now, and obviously we support it fully.”

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Red Bull saw their hopes of winning a third successive Constructors’ title dashed in F1 2024, the team slipping to a P3 finish as McLaren secured their first Constructors’ crown since 1998 ahead of Ferrari.

And while Horner was reluctant to state that a feeling of the title being squandered led to Perez’s exit, he did make reference to the “quite expensive” points deficit between World Champion Max Verstappen and Perez in F1 2024.

“Look, I think there’s shoulda, coulda, would have,” Horner responded. “When you look back, there’s always hindsight.

“I think McLaren did a great job. At the end of the day, we won more races, we won nine races. We had the most poles. We won four sprint races, which is more than any other team. And we won the Drivers’ Championship with two races to go.

“So unfortunately, we had a 280-point deficit between our drivers and of course, that became quite expensive in terms of the Constructors’ Championship.”

McLaren are the only top-four team to retain the same line-up – Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri – for F1 2024, with Lewis Hamilton swapping Mercedes for Ferrari to partner Charles Leclerc, while Mercedes will sport a homegrown line-up of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli for F1 2025.

Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson will front the Red Bull attack.

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