Sergio Perez believes Red Bull should look beyond his disappointing 2024 season results when deciding whether he should keep his place in the top team.
The Mexican has been on a spate of poor results since the summer break having only scored 15% of Red Bull’s points total, with 20 points compared to Max Verstappen’s 126 points. Perez has also not finished a race in the top six since the Miami Grand Prix in May.
It has cost Red Bull dearly in the Constructors’ Championship this year, as they have not only slipped behind McLaren but also Ferrari and face losing millions of pounds in prize money.
Verstappen’s consistency this season enabled him to clinch his fourth title in Las Vegas with two races to spare, but now questions are being asked of his teammate and whether there should be action taken in 2025 ahead of a major regulation change.
After having his contract extended for a single season earlier this year, the points deficit to Verstappen has reportedly put Perez in breach of the terms laid out by Red Bull. Discussing whether he thinks Red Bull should consider anything beyond his results, the Mexican made his thoughts clear in the Qatar Grand Prix drivers’ press conference.
Sergio Perez believes Red Bull has ‘all the information’ to make decision on future
It was rumoured that Perez might be ousted midway through the season, but the team made a U-turn based on there being no alternative that could improve and felt they had let the Mexican down with their poor performance.
Perez says the decision to extend his contract was made knowing the data behind the scenes, and believes they should look at this rather than his on-track results.
“At the end of the day, the team has all the information. There is so much I can say here, at the end of the day, the team has all the information. There’s a reason why we extended my contract during the year. We know exactly where we are in terms of performance, in terms of issues, difficulties that we’ve had,” said Perez.
“We are a team, and we know exactly internally where everything is done. So we’re working really hard as a team to come through and get back into a much better season than the one that we just had.”
When asked if he has 100% confidence he will be driving for Red Bull Racing in 2025, Perez responded: “Yeah, exactly.”
Sergio Perez future to be decided after Abu Dhabi
A summit has been organised post-Abu Dhabi, according to Helmut Marko, to decide Perez’s future at Red Bull.
“There will be a decision – after Abu Dhabi we will get together and present to the shareholders what we think is best and they will make a decision,” he told Sirius XM after the Las Vegas GP.
Liam Lawson has been touted as a successor to Perez in the event Red Bull decides to make a swap, although Franco Colapinto has also made his way into the frame.
The Williams driver would need to be bought out of his existing contract and his recent crashes have not done much to impress teams, although there is likely to be more scrutiny at Qatar and Abu Dhabi given he has raced at them before and the conditions should be stable.
Leave feedback about this