Sergio Perez admitted he will have to “see what happens” about his seat at Red Bull in 2025 after a dismal end to the championship in Abu Dhabi.
The Red Bull driver’s woeful season ended on a low note when he retired from the final race at Yas Marina on the opening lap.Perez was involved in a collision at turn six on the first lap of the race with Valtteri Bottas sending Perez spinning towards the rear of the field. Although he continued, he lost drive in his car and pulled off the circuit into retirement at the exit of turn nine.
“It’s been so difficult the whole year,” said Perez. “It just sums it up.
“It was very unfortunate. I got hit by Bottas there. That was really, really difficult what happened there, unfortunately. So from then on, we can just look forward. It’s been a very, very difficult year.”
Despite signing a contract extension with Red Bull early in the year, Perez has been plagued with rumours and speculation about his future at the team following his consistent struggles with his RB20 and failure to come even close to the performance level of championship winning team mate Max Verstappen. Although he has remained adamant he would be in the Red Bull in 2025, he was far less assured after the race.
“We know how difficult this year has been,” he said. So I think it’s just a matter of discussing what’s best for everyone going forward. And we’ll see what happens.
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“At the moment, it’s all I know. I’ve got a contract to drive next year, so it will be down to reaching an agreement hopefully, and see what the team wants to do.”
Perez ended the season eighth in the drivers’ championship on 152 points, his lowest tally and finishing position of his Red Bull tenure and 285 points fewer than his team mate.
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Mohammad Reza (@reza-pratama24)
8th December 2024, 15:38
Yeah, Sergio. You are as out of depth as ever can be. You the one who costs Red Bull and Ferrari’s championship, if Baku crash wasn’t happened Ferrari should win the WCC.. Better quit now and race locally…
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th December 2024, 22:26
I mean, perez isn’t working for ferrari, and it ruined his race too in a rare good performance.
Edvaldo
8th December 2024, 15:40
What’s best for him is to stay with the team for one more year; that’s what matters.
So he better not make it easy for them. They signed him early, such an obvious mistake, i hope they can’t make it go away so easily.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 16:04
Yeah, let the fans suffer so this master of mediocrity who’s made tens-of-millions doing something most would pay to do can punish Red Bull for trying to instill confidence in him by signing him early.
You should typically have good takes, Ed. Unless that was sarcasm, this one was a whopper.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 16:09
you typically*
Wer
8th December 2024, 16:17
SPArtacus, you need to calm down, read with comprehension and less emotion, because your reply is just childish rambling.
That’s a logical statement. And it is rational – the best thing for Perez is to stay with F1’s best team where he earns millions of dollars despite performing badly.
What’s best for the fans is obviously a different thing, but that’s not the question Edvaldo was answering. Obviously.
Now go and apologize to Edvaldo for your childish behaviour.
Edvaldo
8th December 2024, 16:21
Yep, i’m just stating that Perez should be selfish this time.
It’s one more year or retirement, why should he care to do what’s best for everyone if it means he’ll be walking away from the sport?
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 16:32
Stop projecting your own voice overs onto my posts. I am not even remotely emotional.
And if you want to talk about reading comprehension: while I understand what’s best for Perez is taking them to the cleaners, but beyond what’s best for Perez himself, Edvaldo specifically said:
Can you see the difference, sport?
Edvaldo
8th December 2024, 16:19
Anyone they put in there will be playing a supporting role anyway, so if they made the supreme mistake of signing him again, and a 2-year deal, after an embarrassing 2023, I don’t care if they release him or not.
Such an obvious and predictable mistake should bite them in the ass until the very end.
notagrumpyfan
8th December 2024, 16:25
Rather than penalising RBR for ‘an obvious and predicatble mistake’, I’d rather see a solid driver in that seat.
Its better for RBR and the WCC race, and I think it will help Verstappen to get even more out of himself and the team.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 16:42
More to the point, this is a man who has just put in by far the worst season in F1 history:
-he’s 15 points shy of being down three hundred points to Max.
-he’s more than 200 points behind Leclerc
-he’s averaged less than 1 point per round over the last 8 rounds
I’m not a fan of Red Bull either, but hoping Perez takes them to the cleaner just because you dislike RBR is infantile
Edvaldo
8th December 2024, 17:05
I don’t think it’s “infantile”. They gave him an extension.
Perez was never great in their cars, if his performance is so uneven, they should’ve signed him for a year deal and see how it goes, just like Mercedes did with Bottas many times and never regretted it.
With 6 races he was already driving like crap. The new 2-year deal didn’t even kick in and they want him out. Could they be any more mistaken? So, no, i don’t have any sympathy for them at all.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 1:32
While RBR made a dumb decision, I feel less derision for that mistake and more sorry for the hundreds of RBR employees who will have a smaller check at Christmas because of RBR finishing 3rd in the WCC (RBR employee salaries are also partly performance based) who spent countless long nights fixing Checo’s smashed up car.. I have no sympathy for a guy worth $50m minimum just because he still wants to keep driving.
Maybe, what’s best for him is to think about not only what’s best for his wallet, but also the hundreds of employees who aren’t wealthy. Negotiate a payout of only ten million and spare the fans and RBR’s employees more of your excuses and self-immolation.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
8th December 2024, 16:45
Completely agree. PER can return to F1 and try to redeem himself and possibly get a drive with another team in the future or quit. Not much of a decision.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
8th December 2024, 15:40
It’s leaving RBR, that’s what’s best for everyone.
Sure, try and get a seat elsewhere, but staying at RBR just keeps on getting worse and worse for everyone.
David BR (@david-br)
8th December 2024, 15:43
I read the headline and laughed. What other reaction is possible? One of the worst performances of any F1 driver for successive seasons and it’s the driver who will sit down with the team and tell them his decision.
Whatever. Enjoy not winning the WCC Red Bull, that was some achievement given Verstappen won the driver’s championship at a canter.
Adam (@rocketpanda)
8th December 2024, 15:56
Being just shy of 300 points down on your team-mate who won the title is just an unfathomably large gap. Some would say unjustifiable, tbh. I don’t think it’s even arguable now that gap cost Red Bull any shot they had at the constructor’s.
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 16:08
That’s a solid performance. Next year he might even be within 225 points of Max. What’s best for him is not to kill his father through sheer stress. I’ll say it again: his dad suffered a heart attack when Checo crashed with Sainz in Baku and got so angry at Ralf saying Checo’d be out of the team at the end of the season he went on a wild homophobic rant.
SteveP
8th December 2024, 19:06
Isn’t that a heavy inducement to stop causing his father stress?
If he retires, his father can live a disappointed but stress-free life.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 1:36
Yes. 100% He should stop killing his father, making mechanics spend long nights fixing his smashed cars and losing money via reduced bonuses due to his pushing RBR down the WCC order. His dad will end up disappointed either way.
Des Mo
8th December 2024, 15:59
Stay with the team and lose them another WCC. Next year Max won’t be so dominant, so he will struggle too and the poor RB strategy of driver development and technical staff will be laid bare. Hubris will catch up with them.
MichaelN
8th December 2024, 16:12
What is it about Horner that he can manage two teams, two… well you know, but not two drivers? It’s obvious Pérez is not the way to go. Even if this years is a bit odd in a ‘huh, I wonder what really went down’ kind of way, he couldn’t even get 2nd in 2022. And save for his late season blocking races his contribution to the 2021 campaign was minimal as well.
Red Bull’s young driver program was amazing 10+ years ago, but it’s not even a shadow of its former self. The Red Bull II team they’re still somehow allowed to run has been used for little else than Red Bull I rejects and Honda appointees for the better part of the last decade now.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 1:37
Like any healthy adult I find Horner grating, but that’s Marko’s department. Not Horner’s.
MichaelN
9th December 2024, 8:30
Horner ultimately decides who drives for RB1. And he has already shown he can hire outside the RB sphere when he needs or cares to.
But the junior program is indeed Marko’s responsibility, and it’s doing very badly in recent years. He deserves credit for what it once was, but those days seem long gone.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:13
Long gone.
True. Horner has the most power in deciding, but it’s also clear he does not have unilateral decision making power. I think they’d be better off not putting so much emphasis on their junior driver program.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
8th December 2024, 16:12
Should have announced his retirement before the race, his F1 career would have ended on a different note. It didn’t have to end in such sad way, clinging to the seat until the end.
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
9th December 2024, 9:27
That would be ideal from a dignity perspective, but there’s money involved.
By extending Perez’s contract, at a minimum they are bound to pay his salary next year, no questions asked. I’m sure the sponsorship arrangement he brings to the team is a complicating factor. The thing to be discussed is money, namely how much Perez will need to be paid to not drive for the team next year. Similar situation to McLaren biting the bullet with Ricciardo, preferring to pay him a huge sum, rather than have him in the seat for another year.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
8th December 2024, 17:04
There are clever people at Red Bull and then there’s whoever decided giving him not one but a TWO YEAR contract extention that was a good idea. And it was probably the one in charge of the whole thing…
Pinak Ghosh (@pinakghosh)
8th December 2024, 18:23
No doubt it was the one in charge of the whole thing. Perhaps it is time to discuss what’s really best for everyone.
t1redmonkey (@t1redmonkey)
8th December 2024, 18:17
Unbelievable the guy didn’t finish in the top 5 since Miami. Equally unbelievable RBR didn’t get rid of him in the summer break, when 99.9% of fans could see he wasn’t going to turn things around.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th December 2024, 3:58
Indeed, he only had a good performance, he was in for a podium until the last lap crash in baku and outperformed verstappen; apart from that, nothing even remotely decent!
debaser91
9th December 2024, 6:46
Points since Miami:
Perez 49
Gasly 42
Hülkenberg 39
Alonso 38
Says it all. Barely beating an Aston, an Alpine, and a Haas over 18 races.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:19
And any of those 3 three drivers is likely scoring quite literally 200+ points during that time (safe to assume that would still leave them roughly 75 points behind Max).
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
8th December 2024, 18:30
Some people here are fantastic with stats and I know we’ll have an article in a day or two, and I don’t want to seem lazy, but has a world champion ever had a full time teammate finish lower than 8th? Michael in 1994 springs to mind, but everyone but me got a go that year. Without injury, fatality or substitutes factored in.
*Before I clicked post I googled 1982. If you’re ever in a pub quiz, that year, write down 82′.
ChrisJ (@chriju0411)
8th December 2024, 18:48
It happened in 1983 for example (1st and 9th).
anon
8th December 2024, 19:03
@bernasaurus the easy answer would be Fittipaldi, as David Walker, his team mate in 1972, failed to score a single point that season (which means they were technically unclassified at the end of the season, although unofficially he finished in 28th place in the 1972 WDC). That is probably going to be the most extreme gap that you will find between a driver winning the WDC and their team mate in any particular season.
1981 and 1983 would also qualify for your criteria – Héctor Rebaque finished in 10th place in 1981, whilst in 1983 Riccardo Patrese was only 9th in the WDC. The 1985 season also saw Prost win with Lauda down in 10th, albeit that Lauda did miss two races that season due to injury.
There are also cases of drivers with team mates that finished down in 8th – Jim Clark’s team mate, Mike Spence, was joint 8th in 1965 (tied with Bruce McLaren), whilst in 1962 Graham Hill’s team mate, Richie Ginther, finished in 8th place in the WDC.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
8th December 2024, 19:17
Wow, what a fantastic answer. Thank you. It’s posts like these that I really enjoy this site for.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th December 2024, 4:11
Yes, really impressive, coming up with answers like this in just 30 mins!
Coventry Climax
9th December 2024, 10:14
So let’s turn this thing around:
Even if all teammates, of all WDC’s, of all years in the past had finished 8th or lower, this year Perez’ would still have been such an abominable performance that there is more than reason enough to go find someone else and try to at least improve the situation for next year.
Leroy (@g-funk)
8th December 2024, 21:57
Perez’s statement is telegraphing as loudly as possible that Red Bull are going to have to buy out his contract to get him to leave. Which would be for the best if everyone. Another season in F1 isn’t going to do him any good. And RBR aren’t going to win a WCC without a halfway decent second driver.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th December 2024, 12:08
Pretty much how I read it yeah. Perez know’s he’s out, but the details of buying it off have to be negotiated yet.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
8th December 2024, 22:12
“At the moment, it’s all I know. I’ve got a contract to drive next year, so it will be down to reaching an agreement hopefully, and see what the team wants to do.”
Maybe he should go to horner and marko and ask if they’re satisfied with his performance? I wouldn’t even dare if I were him!
SPArtacus
8th December 2024, 23:49
I don’t even know how he can show his face in fhe garage. I would not have been able to halfway through the seat let alone now.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th December 2024, 4:14
Ahah, that’s true! I’m guessing with this statement he means they will have to pay him out for him to leave early, just like ricciardo ended up doing after that terrible 2022 season.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:21
And even though Ricciardo had done far, far better in that terrible season he still had the good grace to be ashamed of himself and never tried to blame the team.
Chris Horton
8th December 2024, 23:01
I hope Checo can negotiate with Red Bull to move to RB. I genuinely think he needs to step away from that car sadly. His and Verstappen’s driving styles are not compatible.
Franky
9th December 2024, 1:11
It will be extremely hilarious to see the next rbr 2nd driver to be ousted before mid season just because the team focus is Verstapen (not blaming anyone for that) and they use the 2nd driver as a testbed. Without the economic backing they will be fired just like the good old times for rbr.
The #1 rb20 is crap now that they lost Newey&Co no matter what Horner says. But the 2nd rb20 was just a joke, for example today it was evident that the car was losing traction since the first corners and then with just a spin the clutch or gearbox just dead, it reminds me of a lemon car just being used to try things out. These are F1 race cars, how can’t they have a reliable new clutch whenever needed. Just ridiculous.
Many here say that “what’s the case of not giving your second driver a decent car and team support” well here you have the answer when you use 80% of your team to support your star driver and the remaining 20% just to support the other 80% of the team: you ensure drivers championships even when your team’s senior technical group starts to fall apart. I can asure you that Perez’s sponsors are not very happy to see the rb20 crumbling but even less happy or plainly mad with rbr using him as a testbed and scapegoat at the same time. Otherwise it would be just fool not to fire him on the spot. Just sayin!
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
9th December 2024, 4:20
A difference between drivers that got fired quickly like albon or gasly (even more so) is that they were driving the red bull so bad that they were getting similar or better results with toro rosso, instead perez had a pretty decent 2021 season, almost at bottas level, and while 2022 wasn’t great, it also wasn’t terrible, so they saw he’s capable of performing with that car, unlike his 2 predecessors; however he only really had a handful of decent-good races per season in 2023 and 2024 and I can confidently say his last 2 seasons have been worse than those who got fired before him.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:23
Precisely. Even the worst of those weren’t performing as anemically Perez.
Franky
9th December 2024, 18:21
For what I have seen also the rb20 has been also anemical, maybe Perez has been too politically correct describing what the rb20 became this year curiously as Newey&Co were fleeing from rbr. Not as outspoken let’s say as Hamilton not to say Alonso. But only rbr really know. Maybe they fire him, maybe not. What is certain is that either way they have a handful to manage.
Franky
9th December 2024, 18:12
Precisely with the one car team that is rbr, the second car has always been tricky, underperforming, less developed, test mule, glitchy, or a combination of the aforementioned. They also use the second car to test drivers. But when they were really pressed to be champions (more acurately to make Max a champion before he got desperate and went to another team) they needed someone that was more reliable.
Perez has been reliable to drive the 2nd car, even if he was driving a nightmare car. Imagine how the 2nd rb20 was to drive (less developed, with a possible chassis failure, etc.). It is the only reasonable explanation to keep him rather than making experiments with Yuki or Liam. How is it possible that it had 2 clutch failures within one week in the last couple of races. If Max had such an experience it would have been a scandal. As it was for Perez it is just another reason to fire him?
Maho Pacheco
9th December 2024, 5:37
Get an Indycar MMM contract, sponsorship contracts, a new Netflix series Checo in Indy, get a huge chunk of money from RBR, and a contract as support driver.
Craig
9th December 2024, 9:36
I still think the real question that needs asking is “What happened after Baku 2023?”. Perez is a race winner after all, yet after that race (where there was plenty of pictures of Red Bull’s management looking extremely unhappy with him winning) his pace seemed to just vanish for some reason and there was never a satisfactory answer.
Doesn’t excuse some of his performances this year but it’s a part of the puzzle that seems to be constantly ignored.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:26
Yeah. That’s it. They were so angry Checo won that they decided to ruin him. That’s part of the puzzle…but they were really sneaky about it. They let him start 2024 well enough and then boom, they put their plan into action. It had nothing to do with the car losing its advantage and becoming more difficult drive, which Perez couldn’t handle.
Craig
9th December 2024, 14:39
As I said it doesn’t excuse some of his performances but Red Bull never seemed to care much when he was struggling, quite happy to leave him languishing rather then doing anything to help him.
Problem is this isn’t even new behaviour for them, they’ve always focused on whoever the golden boy is and care little for the other driver unless he “gets in the way” (Webber’s “not bad for a number 2 driver” remark didn’t come out of nowhere, after all).
Tomcat173 (@tomcat173)
9th December 2024, 9:42
What’s remarkable about this situation is Red Bull have behaved in the complete opposite way to what they normally would do, or how they have operated in the past.. and have ended up far worse off for it.
They hired an experienced driver from another team, not promote someone from the Red Bull junior program.
Previously they have ditched drivers (likes Kyvat, Gasly and Albon) for modest performances, typically done it after relatively few races, and they’ve been quite swift (ie mid-season driver change). With Perez, the performances were particularly poor, they’ve given him additional races to show some improvement, and they’re not making a change mid-season. They also chose to extend Perez’s contract in the face of poor performances, unlike other drivers in the past.
The punchline: is they’re now committed to a poor driver that they don’t want. Maybe their previous sink-or-swim approach, cutting drivers mid-season, and being super decisive.. would mean they’d be in a much better situation!
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:29
Not remarkable. He brought a minimum of $30m in sponsorship. That’ll buy you a lot of patience. And that patience ran out as soon as the car was no longer good enough for Max to win the WCC single handedly.
BasCB (@bascb)
9th December 2024, 12:09
I’d also say that the first seasons of him at Red Bull were pretty decent on track as well.
Coventry Climax
9th December 2024, 10:18
I’d be so ashamed to go on team photographs I’d go way to the back and even then duck down as low as I could.
Let’s face it: It’s just downright incomprehensible the guy is even in this position right now.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:26
+1
tielemst
9th December 2024, 10:56
Best for everyone would be to swap places with Charles Leclerc. It will give Lewis a better chance of getting his eigth championship and would give us a great fight between Charles and Max, arguably the best of the pack today.
David
9th December 2024, 11:16
Checo is a rich man.
He could do the honourable thing and retire.
Or he could do the contractual thing and get a big payout.
I expect the latter.
Red Bull were fools to extend his contract in the summer.
SPArtacus
9th December 2024, 11:31
Bingo.
All that must be asked is was the performance clause a complete lie or does it save them so little money that they still need to beg him to retire?
Mooa42
9th December 2024, 23:28
I wonder if Red Bull keeping Perez has any connection to Dietrich Mateschitz passing @ the end of ’22?
Maybe the new CEO is not as generous with the cash? Seems to be a lot of people moving on since he passed.
Toncho
10th December 2024, 10:11
I hope Sainz has an exit clause of his Williams contract if that sit is available.