Red Bull Racing confirmed ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix that Sergio Perez would stay with the team beyond the 2024 season.
Sergio Perez possesses arguably the most lucrative seat on the grid but in the last few races, he’s struggled to justify his position in the team.
Speaking on The Chequered Flag Podcast, journalist Andrew Benson, commentator Harry Benjamin and pundit and racing driver Alex Brundle were discussing Perez’s position within Red Bull.
Red Bull headed into the 2024 season off the back of the most dominant season in the history of Formula 1.
Max Verstappen won all but three of the races last year, with Perez collecting two more victories on his way to finishing runner-up to his teammate in the Drivers’ Championship.
However, he knew the pressure was on in 2024 with his contract set to expire at the end of the year.
Red Bull decided a third of the way through the campaign that Perez had done enough to earn a new deal.
Unfortunately, Benson has pointed out that’s exactly the opposite of what Red Bull said they were going to do during the winter break.
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Sergio Perez struggling to justify new Red Bull contract
After the first five races of the season, Sergio Perez appeared to have turned a corner after some middling form towards the end of last year.
Four podiums in the first five Grand Prix meant Perez was comfortably second to Verstappen in the Drivers’ Championship and had improved on his qualifying performances as Christian Horner had asked.
However, Sergio Perez didn’t have the best race in Miami and his performances have been poor ever since.
He snuck into the points at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix before back-to-back retirements in Monaco and Canada.
Not only were his performances in those races sub-standard, but he didn’t get out of Q1 on either weekend.
The gap between Verstappen and Perez is as significant as last year, but the rest of the grid have caught up to Red Bull and can now sneak in between the two drivers.
It’s beginning to make the decision to extend Perez’s contract so early in the season look more and more confusing.
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Sergio Perez has work to do to prove he deserves his Red Bull seat
Talking about Perez’s performance in Canada, Benson said: “I mean he qualified 16, he was a second slower than his teammate in Q1 and he’s crashed in the race having made basically no progress whatsoever in a Red Bull.
“That on the weekend where they’ve just announced he’s got a new contract for the next two years, a decision that goes against everything that they said over the winter that they wanted to see from [Sergio] Perez for this year.
“They wanted him to be better in qualifying, more support for [Max] Verstappen. Yes, he did that in the first four races when they had a massive car advantage but ever since then, he hasn’t achieved that.”
Benjamin joked: “I have heard on good authority that contract has been written in invisible ink, so could well backtrack on that one.
“For the Spanish Grand Prix, Perez has to have the comeback of all comebacks for us to forget the last two rounds.”
Alex Brundle added: “I doubt the performance option’s in invisible ink!”
Sergio Perez’s new contract puts Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz under pressure
Daniel Ricciardo hasn’t hidden the fact that he wanted to step up to the Red Bull team once again after returning to join Yuki Tsunoda at AlphaTauri last year.
However, like Perez, Ricciardo’s performances haven’t been good enough to earn that promotion although senior Red Bull staff are pleased with his displays.
Carlos Sainz also had his sights set on Perez’s Red Bull seat after being let go by Ferrari.
He’s outperformed the Mexican but F1Oversteer understands that Sainz is now in line to join Williams instead.
Red Bull have never been shy of letting drivers go before the end of their contracts.
Even with the security of a new deal, there’s no guarantee that he’ll still be Max Verstappen’s teammate by the end of 2026.
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