Sergio Perez will remain at Red Bull for the 2025 season, the team announced ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. There had been some uncertainty around the Mexican’s future as he approached the end of his deal.
Red Bull are describing it as a two-year contract. But reports suggest that Perez must meet certain performance criteria in 2025 to guarantee his place for the following season.
The 34-year-old got off to a solid start this term with three runner-up finishes and four podiums in the first five races. The last three races, however, have been a disaster.
He’s collected just four points combined in that time while failing to reach Q3 at all. He didn’t even make it to the chequered flag in Monaco or Canada after crashing out.
Perez ranks inside the all-time top 10 for race starts on 266, having started his career back in 2011 with Sauber. He spent two years with the Swiss outfit before an ill-fated move to McLaren.
He would then rebuild his reputation across seven seasons with Force India/Racing Point, winning his first Grand Prix in Sakhir in 2020. Since joining Red Bull the following year, he’s added five more to that tally.
Guenther Steiner reveals Sergio Perez Haas talks
Speaking on The Red Flags podcast, former Haas team principal Guenther Steiner revealed that he’d tried to convince Perez to join the American outfit on multiple occasions. One of these may have been the 2020 season, when he was set to lose his seat to Sebastian Vettel.
Unfortunately for Steiner, Haas wasn’t a sufficiently attractive destination. The team have failed to win a race or score a podium since they entered F1 in 2016, scoring 256 points in that time.
Turning to Perez’s current form, the 59-year-old suggested that Max Verstappen may have helped him keep his seat. He posited the theory that there’s a clause in the Dutchman’s contract that allows him to follow his teammate out the door.
This wouldn’t be the only such provision in Verstappen’s deal. His future is also tied to that of Helmut Marko, the head of the Red Bull driver programme.
“I like and respect Sergio,” Steiner said. “I spoke a few times with him to come into Haas. He’s just struggling.
“I think they are happy as you say. Maybe Max said ‘I want Sergio, otherwise I don’t stay’. You never know if he has a clause his contract.”
Martin Brundle offers one-word summary of Perez race in Canada
Perez’s miserable weekend in Montreal has called into question Red Bull’s decision to extend his contract. He was fortunate, in a sense, that Ferrari suffered a double DNF, because otherwise they could have cut the Bulls’ constructors’-championship lead even further.
Perez suffered a Q1 exit on Saturday, while Verstappen matched the pole time of Mercedes driver George Russell. He failed to make any sort of impression in the race, with Martin Brundle admitting that he forgot about the veteran.
With less than 20 laps to go, Perez crashed at the turn six/seven chicane, sustaining terminal damage and limping back to the pits. The stewards awarded him a three-place penalty for Spain for driving in an unsafe condition.
As this was going on, Verstappen was producing yet another masterclass to take the race win. Reflecting on his weekend, Brundle simply said ‘ouch’, while BBC journalist Andrew Benson told Red Bull they’d gone against ‘everything they said in the winter’ by renewing his deal.
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