Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull is unclear. He is currently driving his final Formula 1 season for the world champion team. Red Bull Motorsport consultant Dr. Helmut Marko can imagine a potential extension with the veteran, but not on the terms that the Mexican would like or appear to demand.
Sergio Perez has made a solid start to the 2024 Formula One campaign. His spectacular collapse in form following the Miami Grand Prix in 2023 is not what is remembered from last season.
Wolff/Hamilton clash: “worse to lose an engineer than a driver”
Checo won two of the first four races in Saudi Arabia and in Azerbaijan 2023 and after five rounds was 105-119 to Max Verstappen.
After five rounds of this season, Checo’s count to his team mate stands at 85-100, which is clearly worse, though as yet not by much. The test for the Red Bull driver will come over the next four of five Grand Prix. The team expects Perez to be making podiums when Max is winning and picking up the pieces for the win should anything happen to the world champion.
And this was Sergio’s problem last season. After two race wins and two podiums in the first five rounds, Checo could only manage another five podiums across the final 16 races of the year.
While Red Bull won the constructors championship with ease, as the other F1 teams close in on the world champions, having two drivers scoring highly is vital – even for Red Bull with Verstappen.
The stark contrast between the points scored by the two Red Bull drivers last season led to a heated debate over whether the cars designed in Milton Keynes were truly suited to Max Verstappen’s driving style. Horner and his team vehemently denied this, but the evidence spoke for itself.
Mercedes face threat of Allison departure
Horner denies RB cars designed for Max
“You develop a car to be as quick as you can and sometimes quick cars are difficult cars. That’s what’s historically been the case,” said Horner.
“I think that the good drivers adapt. You see it in wet conditions, mixed conditions, varied conditions. The elite, they adapt quickly.
However, the Red Bull boss was not helped when Checo’s father decided to go public with his thoughts on why his son appeared to be miles behind his team mate.
“Checo continues to struggle with the car in something that we have not detected,” he said speaking to Mexican media outlet ESTO following the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix.
“The car is set for Max. Max drives with all the grip in the front, and Checo has driven all his life and all the time he has driven with the grip in the back.
“So today Checo has to adapt to driving a car, and Max doesn’t.”
However, the idea of a team being ‘built around’ a driver was addressed by Christian Horner back in 2017, when Max was just a two times race winner “Lewis is pretty set at Mercedes, Seb has signed for three years at Ferrari. The obvious thing is to build a team around you [Verstappen].”
FIA members call for legal action against F1
Perez demands long contract from Marko
So with this in mind, Perez is perhaps realising that better the devil you know and to accept the 2nd drive roll in the best team, and get a contract for as long as possible.
Helmut Marko and Sergio Perez’s ideas about a new contract at Red Bull are still a little different.
“He initially wanted a three-year contract,” the 80-year-old revealed to MotorsportNL. However, Perez will not get this at Red Bull.
Nevertheless, Marko is ready to negotiate. “We will find a solution,” said the motorsport consultant.
“We are not in a position to finalise everything yet. But that has nothing to do with the regulations. He knows that he has to perform,” explained Marko.
Mercedes to control Hamilton car setup in future
Praise for Sergio Perez’s achievements in China
Perez recently appeared optimistic on “ESPN” that he would soon have clarity about his future Formula 1 career.
“I know what I want. I think it will be a matter of a few weeks until I know my future,” said Max Verstappen’s teammate.
He also made it clear that he didn’t just want to sign a one-year contract.
“I think it makes a lot of sense that my next contract is for at least two years because the rules are changing a lot for 2026,” said Perez.
His reasoning is clear: There will be “a lot of development,” especially next year, which is why a long-term team would be an advantage.
The good performances of the last few weeks have not gone unnoticed by Marko. “Sergio was unlucky with the safety car,” said the Red Bull boss about the race in China.
“He did very well. Without the safety car, he would have finished second.”
In the Formula 1 drivers’ standings, Perez is in second place behind Verstappen with 85 points after five races.
READ MORE: Rosberg spills juicy contract details
MORE F1 NEWS – Breaking: Red Bull offer Sainz a 2025 seat?
Formula One returned to China for the first time in half a decade this weekend meeting a number of surprises along the way. The first was the expected track resurfacing had not in fact taken place but a sealer had been ‘painted’ on to prevent further deterioration.
The result was the cars were 3-4 seconds a lap slower than when last here in 2019 but the reduced grip didn’t see tyre wear go to silly proportions. The newly confirmed contract extension for Fernando Alonso played out well for him and Aston Martin, as the Spanish maestro hauled his car into…READ MORE ON THIS STORY
And, who has confidence in Ralf Schumachers musings, how many time has his words of wisdom turned out to be Gospel. I don’t know why his thoughts are considered to have any authority.