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I'll be at Red Bull in 2025, insists Perez

NEWS STORY
29/11/2024

Sergio Perez is adamant that he will continue to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull next season.

To be perfectly blunt, the reason the Austrian team, which last week secured its fourth successive drivers' title with Verstappen, is looking to finish third in the team standings, can be laid squarely at the Mexican's door.

He has 152 points to his teammate's 403 and is currently eighth in the standings, safe in the knowledge that he cannot be overhauled.

His last podium was in China and he has scored just 21 points since the summer break, compared to Verstappen's 126. Even his qualifying has gone to pot, failing to make it to Q3 at four of the last five outings.

Yet, talking to reporters in Qatar, the Mexican is adamant that he will retain his seat.

Asked on Thursday in Qatar, if he was 100% certain that he would be retained by Red Bull Racing, and not moved to RB, the Mexican said: "Yeah, exactly."

Asked about his contract he added: "I don't speak. I've been 14 years in the sport and I don't speak about my contracts publicly. So I will not comment on that. I know exactly where I am and I will not speak about it publicly."

At the start of the year he appeared to be battling with Verstappen for the title, so where has it all gone wrong?

"I think it's very difficult for people to understand that they're not part of the team or are not on a daily basis," he said. "From one race to another, let's say you are so far away. I think when you are not able to extract 100% out of your car, it's irrelevant how good your car is. And this is what happened.

"You know, I haven't been able to extract 100% out of my car because of the difficulties I've had in the last few months with it. And I think that's the main issue. I think you go through periods and I think as a team, we are understanding and we're working really hard to make sure that we can fix them."

Asked if he feels therefore that the basic stats are misleading, the Mexican said: "At the end of the day, the team has all the information. There is so much I can say here. At the end of the day, the team has all the information. And there's a reason why we extended my contract during the year. At the end of the day, the team has everything, and we exactly know where we are in terms of performance, in terms of issues, difficulties that we've had.

"We are a team and we know exactly internally where everything stands, so we're working really hard as a team to come through and get back into a much better season than the one that we just had.

"I think Max has done his best season I've seen from him in these four years," he added. "I think the way he pushed the team, out of the car, how hard he worked during this year, especially there were a lot of periods during the year where we looked really far and he would push the team in all the areas, in all the aspects. Max has done very big steps out of the car. I think his talent and his speed has been there since day one, but out of the car, how he reads the races, how he works with the team, how he pushes the team, I think is the biggest step that he has done in these past years.

"I think we're working as a team," he continued. "I think especially the last few months, we've had similar issues with the car, so we're pushing in similar directions to try and improve the car.

"At the end of the day, we are working as a team. Like I say, you know, the team knows exactly what we've done, where we are, and I think we're working well together."

While he claims that the stats don't tell the whole story, the fact is that Red Bull is destined to finish third behind McLaren and Ferrari, not only a poor result for the team that scored a fourth successive drivers' title but also worth many millions in prize money.

While we do not go along with some of the conspiracy theories doing the rounds, the fact is that having failed so miserably in the second half of the season, if Perez is retained for another year there would have to be something more to the story.

Check out our Friday gallery from Qatar here.

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READERS COMMENTS

 

1. Posted by kenji, 30/11/2024 10:36

"Evidently Perez has somehow got his hands on a set of GPS codes that identify exactly where the RBR
'skeletons' are buried. Julian Assange has guaranteed him free access to his network in exchange for a lifetime supply of Checo's personal label tequila. Now it all makes sense......."

Rating: Negative (-1)     Rate comment: Positive | NegativeReport this comment

2. Posted by Geeza1966, 30/11/2024 8:25

"Maybe there is more to this than meets the eye.... Consider that Honda are to be the Aston Martin works team engine supplier from 2026 at the same time as Red Bull Powertrains hook up with Ford. Maybe there is some kind of sub clause that allowed finance/cash flow between the partners which will come to an end when all this happens and Red Bull actually do need the income that Sergio's Mexican connections bring to the table... It might be smoke and mirrors but in a cost cap era of our sport while all associated costs are affected by worldwide inflation, perhaps Sergio knows what he is really saying... We will see...."

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3. Posted by kenji, 30/11/2024 2:58

"Not so many years ago it was 'holding the negatives' that guaranteed protection.In these digital times it's now who owns the 'thumb drive'!! Seriously though Perez has outlasted the Red Bull axe for far too long if the past is anything to go by. It certainly smacks of something out of the frame. "

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4. Posted by NS Biker, 30/11/2024 0:44

"Simple question ... what would Ron Denis have done in the same situation?
Not that I am a fan of RD, but this is nuts.
Get someone else in the car who can at least make it into Q-2 on a regular basis.
Yuki was commenting on driving the Red Bull sim and how much better the car was compared to the RB. This has come up before, so for SP to be dragging the main team down like this, without end, just fix it."

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5. Posted by ffracer, 29/11/2024 20:32

"@Pedro71:

- Thanks for weighing in, we appreciate everyone’s thoughts on this forum to help understand this sport we love.

While I appreciated all that Sergio Perez had done with saving Force India/Racing Point - he was very modest, I don’t think we know how deep or complex was his commitment to saving the team - and his first F1 victory in the Racing Point was utter sweet justice, I respectfully don’t understand his perspective and think that it is more deflecting. His ongoing plight with Red Bull senior team, quite honestly, has been brutal for both Sergio Perez and the team. If your perspective is correct, then why would the senior team management continue to lambast him throughout the last two years in the media, leaving him dangling in the wind with some of those brutal comments and leaving misnomers like making a decision on his fate shortly? Why wouldn’t they show appreciation/coddle their loved member of the team, bringing so much sponsorship To the team and just say that last year’s and this year’s cars are so difficult to drive and/or they could use more wind tunnel time for the their cars going forward or a pit wall decision or a mechanical failure hindered SP’s Practice/qualifying/ race... but they don’t... and the in humane, jet engine exhaust fire continues to glaze poor Sergio. "

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6. Posted by Pedro71, 29/11/2024 18:38

"I agree with Perez’s perspective—Red Bull doesn’t need the money.

The real question is what will be of greater value to the team for 2025-26: securing more wind tunnel time. In my opinion, that’s what they’re really after. "

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7. Posted by Celtic Tiger, 29/11/2024 16:58

"Thus far he has only scored about 27% of the teams points. To keep your seat at Red Bull with those stats is unheard of. Something is definitely up. I thought for sure that they would pull a Kvyat and swap him into a VCARB."

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8. Posted by ffracer, 29/11/2024 15:09

"The article has laid it all out. More importantly how it doesn’t add up.

I fully agree that there is much more to this story that we will ever be privied to know as Sergio Perez has been given many more chances than any other Red Bull driver; it seems blatantly against Darth Marko’s ethos."

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9. Posted by Motorsport-fan, 29/11/2024 12:45

"There is clearly something looking at it from the outside we do not know, because any other driver in this position would have been shown the door some time ago."

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10. Posted by KKK, 29/11/2024 11:49

"when he said "Yeah, exactly." does he mean he will be at RB ???
As much as I like him, the team needs to bring in new, younger talent. Max wont be there for much longer...."

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11. Posted by rambler, 29/11/2024 11:20

"Just can not see him being kept on! Unless his farther/sponsor is paying a lot of money. "

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