Sergio Perez is set to stay at Red Bull for the fifth straight season. Perez joined the Milton Keynes outfit in 2021 and has enjoyed a strong relationship with teammate Max Verstappen.
Perez initially arrived on a one-year deal and scored his first victory with the team at the 2021 Azerbaijan GP. The team opted to retain him for 2022 even though he finished more than 200 points adrift of world champion Verstappen.
The Mexican would then sign for a further two years following his victory at the Monaco Grand Prix. However, there were question marks over whether he would be allowed to see out that contract.
He started the 2023 campaign strongly with victories in Saudi Arabia and Baku, but his form tailed off in dramatic fashion. After a season-opening run of four podiums in five races, he managed just five in the next 17.
Teammate Verstappen won 16 of those Grands Prix in the most dominant year the sport has ever seen. The final margin between the two drivers was a record 290 points.
In the end, Red Bull kept their faith in Perez. But with Daniel Ricciardo back at junior team RB and Carlos Sainz on the market after Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari, he knew he faced a fight to retain the coveted seat for 2025.
Sergio Perez could stay at Red Bull until end of 2026
According to German publication Bild, Perez has now agreed his new contract with Red Bull. While nothing is ‘official’, the ‘final details were clarified’ in advance of the last race in Monaco.
‘Everything has been sorted out’, so all that remains now is the announcement. The team have been telling fans to ‘stay tuned’ for some news, but it’s unclear whether this concerns the 34-year-old.
Significantly, in a ‘great solution’ for Perez, the ‘talk’ is that it will be a one-plus-one deal. That means Red Bull will have the option to extend his contract into 2026 should they desire.
Ricciardo has struggled to mount any sort of case to return to the top team, struggling relative to Yuki Tsunoda. Despite his dominance in the intra-team battle, the Japanese driver hasn’t been a contender.
As for Sainz, Red Bull are wary of tension with Verstappen. There was a hostile atmosphere within Toro Rosso in 2015, when both were rookies.
Perez earns new contract despite ‘ridiculous’ performances
Perez put himself in a strong position by doing what was required in the early rounds of the season. He finished runner-up behind Verstappen three times in the first four races.
That prompted team principal Christian Horner to compare him to 1996 world champion Damon Hill. But he’s suffered a wobble since.
After missing out on the podium in Miami, he had to settle for eighth at Imola after a shock Q2 exit. And he walked away empty-handed from Monaco after an even poorer qualifying display and a lap-one crash.
The timing of the extension is a surprise, then, but there are murmurs that it’s not entirely performance-based. The ‘ridiculous’ gap between Verstappen and Perez, in the words of racing driver Mike Hezemans, would appear to leave Red Bull vulnerable in the constructors’ championship.
But they’re apparently eager to keep the Dutchman happy, and they know he’s satisfied with Perez as a teammate. What’s more, former F1 driver Ralf Schumacher says his commercial ties are important given the enormous cost of Verstappen’s contract.
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