Guenther Steiner believes potential lost earnings for Sergio Perez could also be a sticking point if Red Bull are looking to get rid of the Mexican.

Perez’s future is thought to be very much in the balance after a poor 2024 but while Red Bull have kept their cards close to their chest since a meeting the day after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, former Haas boss Steiner has put forward another potential theory.

Sergio Perez ‘lost earnings’ theory put forward

At the time of writing, Red Bull have not yet made public their plans for 2024 with Perez, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson all in the frame for the two seats on offer.

Given his underwhelming season, Perez is thought to be on the chopping block but the amount of sponsorship money that he brings in has said to have given Red Bull decision-makers a difficult choice.

But from a personal point of view, Steiner believes potential lost earnings for Perez could be a motivating factor for the driver to make any departure difficult.

“A driver normally has got some personal service agreements, PSAs, with sponsors of his own,” Steiner said on the Red Flags podcast. “And for sure, they were for next year as well.

“So he can claim ‘guys, you made my life difficult here because now I’m unemployed, and all the sponsors don’t pay me. Because why would they pay me if I’m not driving a race car?’

“So I think there’s a lot of discussion, not only about his salaries, but also about lost earnings.”

As for what Red Bull boss Chrtistian Horner is thinking, Steiner believes Horner’s messages in the media were asking Perez to resign rather than be sacked.

“How Christian spoke, I think he tried to send Checo a message saying ‘hey, resign.’

“And I think if he would resign, they would pay him the whole money. I think they had to pay Danny Ric [Daniel Ricciardo] the money when he was sacked.

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“I think it was more like ‘hey, if you go away, we pay you’ and then obviously Checo maybe comes back and says ‘yeah you can pay me, but you pay also the money I don’t get, which I which I would have gotten [from his sponsors]

“So I think there is friction now about that one. I said this before the summer, I would be surprised if he’s coming back. I would really be surprised if Checo is back next year, because the damage for Red Bull not winning a championship is not only financial, it’s also the reputation, you know.

“Obviously they won the Drivers’ Championship and they didn’t win the manufacturers’ because they had only one car or they were racing with one and a half cars instead of two. At some stage somebody needs to take responsibility for that.”

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