The conundrum that is Sergio Perez at Red Bull rumbles on for another Formula One weekend. The teams have arrived in Las Vegas, for the only Grand Prix on the calendar to have a permanent Saturday evening start time, to begin the final triple header of the year.

Max Verstappen will be defending his win at the inaugural race along the strip whilst McLaren and Ferrari continue their fight to become the 2024 constructors’ champions. Ferrari fared the best of the pair last time out in Sin City, with Charles Leclerc leading for much of the race but an ill timed safety car gave Verstappen a cheap pit stop and ultimately the lead of the race.

Lando Norris will prefer to forget F1’s return to Las Vegas. He crashed into the wall heavily on lap three and such was the G-Force on impact, the McLaren driver was taken to the University Medical Centre of Southern Nevada where he was detained for observation but released within a few hours.

 

 

 

Happy Vegas return for Perez

Las Vegas has happy memories for Sergio Perez, given his third place podium finish in 2023 cemented Red Bull’s first 1-2 in the F1 drivers’ championship since the team was formed in 2005. This year however, the race in the Nevada desert is the backdrop for the latest instalment in the ‘what does Red Bull do about Checo’ saga.

Red Bull are renown for the ruthlessness which enforces mid-season driver changes as Pierre Gasly, Nyck de Vries and Daniel Ricciardo will all testify to. Both RBR and V-CARB have ditched drivers mid-season when the results are not coming, yet for some strange reason they have retained Sergio Perez even though he is about to cost them their second constructors’ championship.

During the 2021 epic duel between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton, Perez was unable to match the scoring of Mercedes number two driver Valtteri Bottas. Whilst Max eventually prevailed – with some help from a safety car – Checo was found wanting and Red Bull missed out on team glory.

This year barring some miracle, Red Bull will trail home in third place behind Ferrari and McLaren thereby losing over $20m in prize money. And this will be of no surprise to anyone given the decline has been slow and steady since the beginning of the European racing season.

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“Better circuits ahead”

The puzzle is why Red Bull did not ditch Sergio Perez during the summer break given the widely reported break clause in his contract with the team. Should Perez fall more than 100 points behind his team mate come the chequered flag in Spa-Francorchamps, the team could activate a release mechanism which would see the Mexican driver released from his contract. 

Checo was in fact 146 points adrift of his team mate come August, but the team decided to retain his services in anticipation of a return to form at upcoming circuits where Perez has excelled and even claimed victory in previous years. The rise of Checo failed to materialise and with three races to go he is now almost 250 points behind Max who can win the drivers’ title this weekend.

Sergio’s chief problem this season has been in qualifying where he has an average starting position of ninth. This puts him behind all the top four teams other drivers and also behind one of the drivers from the midfield teams who happen to be quick on a particular race weekend.

Perez is one of the most heavily backed F1 drivers on the grid right now. Telmex, the giant America’s telecoms company has paid Red Bull a reported $100m over the four years Sergio has raced with the team. Further Carlos Slim, the billionaire owner of Telmex ensures all of Checo’s personal sponsorship needs are taken care of along with a $9m a year salary.

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Its all about the money?

Now F1 journalist, Alex Kalinaukas argues that there is just one ‘baffling’ reason for Red Bull retaining Perez: “That company is so big and it needs to have a bottom line, and it wouldn’t want to have a $30m (£23m) hole if Perez was to leave in its finances. So the sponsorship seems to be what is keeping Perez there, and it’s strange. You almost are, in effect, in a pay driver scenario there,” suggested Kalinauckas.

“He’s better than that tag suggests, but if the only reason he is being kept around is money and if we’re in the same situation as next year where there is no way Red Bull will win the Constructors’ Championship, that’s a baffling position for what is one of F1’s best teams.”

To suggest that Red Bull have retained Perez purely for financial reasons appears bonkers. By finishing third in the constructors’ title race this year will cost the team some $18m in lost prize money when compared to last year. Further, for the team this title race is more important than the drivers as teams battle for their rankings in the all time list of winners.

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2 constructor titles lost

Had Red Bull won the constructors’ in 2021 and again this season, they would be level with Mercedes on the all time list of victorious F1 manufacturers with eight titles each.

Rumours have emerged in recent weeks that Red Bull tested Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo against Sergio Perez and that the drivers from the junior V-CARB team were found to be wanting. This makes more sense from an F1 team’s perspective than wanting to retain $30m of sponsorship, whilst losing $18m of prize money along with making F1 history.

If paddock talk is to be believed, Red Bull are in hot pursuit of Williams Franco Colapinto who they will parachute directly into the RB21 alongside Max Verstappen. A fee of €20m is said to be the price Williams will demand for their superstar junior who replaced the hapless Logan Sargeant and ws immediately on the pace of his team mate Alex Albon.

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Norris dismissed Red Bull as title challengers

Lando Norris and McLaren may one day reflect on the 2024 F1 drivers title race as biggest of misses for both the driver and the team. With no title since Hamilton won his maiden championship in 2008 and no constructors’ glory since the days of Mika Hakkinen a decade earlier, this year the Woking based team are tantalisingly close to a return to the top.

Whilst Verstappen is almost home and dry and ready to claim his fourth consecutive F1 title, McLaren now must concentrate on beating Ferrari who have closed in with race wins in the USA for Charles Leclerc and Mexico City for the departing Carlos Sainz.

Following the drive of the century in Brazil coming from P17 to win by a country mile in treacherous conditions, Max Verstappen is now 62 points ahead of Norris – ironically the same lead he had when Norris claimed his maiden victory ion Miami… READ MORE