Sergio Perez admits of potential talks with Red Bull, as others chime in on the situation, while FIA reveals the community service to be undertaken by Max Verstappen.
In what was likely to be his last F1 race with Red Bull, it ended on Lap 1 itself for Perez after he was spun around by Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas. Post-race, the Mexican noted about issue with the car even before the spin, which is why he dropped chunk of places to be near to the Finn.
The more important discussion that followed was the Mexican’s admission of potential talks with Red Bull to decide his F1 future. It is widely reported that Perez will not be in the car in 2025 alongside Verstappen after the team’s loss in constructors’ and the Mexican finishing only eighth.
The gap to Verstappen stood at 285 points with the Dutchman winning the drivers’ title and doing the bulk of the points scoring especially after the first few rounds. Perez though denied resigning, but noted about talks to happen in a day or two, while reiterating about having a contract.
In fact, Red Bull put those quotes in the post-race press release as well, which is unusual for any F1 team to do, considering these talks are speculative, even though there is factual knowledge behind it. Horner too stressed on discussions with Perez, before stating anything in official capacity.
He didn’t wish to add on the speculation but crucially didn’t confirm or deny the 2025 line-up either. He touched upon Liam Lawson’s rapid progress, while acknowledging Yuki Tsunoda’s good work too. The Kiwi is noted as the firm favourite to replace the Mexican as per reports.
Tsunoda is slated to test on Tuesday where he hopes to impress Red Bull – that’s all he can do at the moment, leaving the rest on the upper management. Verstappen had kind words for Perez additionally, noting that people have been too harsh on the Mexican as such.
What happened –
Perez: “With Valtteri, as I going into the corner, I was hit very late on the rear. The car was damaged and I lost drive. But I think the driver was already an issue before because everytime I was shifting up, I was losing drive. So, I think there was something related to that already.”
Future talks –
Perez: “Well, at the moment, I don’t know. I just know that I’ve got a contract to race next year. And unless something changes in the coming days, that’s going to be the situation for next year. It is something to ask Red Bull. I think at the moment all I can say is that I got a contract that I signed up in the middle of the year to race for the team for the next two years. So, we’ll see what happens and how the conversation goes in the coming days.
“We are talking to try and see what’s best moving forwards. We’ll see what happens in the coming days. We’re going to be talking in the coming days and we will discuss what the situation is from both parties and see if we are able to reach an agreement. If not, like I said, I’ve got a contract for next year. [And] no [I have no intention of resigning].”
What’s happening with Perez –
Horner: “Those discussions will happen between Checo and the team. Now we get the season out of the way, we’ll sit down with him and reflect on the season, where it’s gone wrong and collectively work out what is the right and appropriate way forward. Checo has been a great servant of this team. Going back to this race in 2021, the contribution that he made. ‘22 and ‘23 Constructors World Championships, five race victories, second in last year’s Drivers’ Championship. He’s done an awful lot for this team and we’ll sit down and reflect on this season and how we move forward.
“There’s no immediate rush. We have all the permutations that are available to us internally. I think the first thing is to sit down with Checo and have that conversation now that the season’s completed. All I can confirm is that there’s a lot of speculation. Sitting here now, he’s still our driver. So it will be wrong for me to speculate on what next year may look like until we have sat down and discussed this year and we reflect on as a team.”
Need for second driver to perform –
Horner: “I think you can see the importance of having two drivers scoring on a regular and collective basis in the Constructors’ Championship is crucial. Ferrari will be strong with their lineup next year. McLaren have a strong lineup. Mercedes will have an inexperienced driver in one of their seats. For us, it’s very important that both of our drivers are delivering and there’s not a significant gap. Obviously, the benchmark is your teammate and the car has won nine races with Max, he’s had 10 poles, significant amount of podiums and fastest laps.
“It is far from an easiest car, and Max is the hardest teammate as well to have. It is a difficult job to sit next to Max, to extract maximum amount from the car, for sure RB20 has been one of the more challenging cars that we have produce, the operational window of maximum performance is very-very narrow and that is something we will work to broaden next year.”
VCARB drivers –
Horner: “I think Liam in challenging circumstances has done a very good job. If you analyse what he has done in the time that he’s had and the race pace he’s had, he’s done a good job. Yuki has done a good job, so they in the event that anything is decided with Checo, we can handle it with the way we want to.”
Know anything of future –
Lawson: “I don’t know yet. Obviously, my goal is to be in Formula 1 next year but I don’t where that will be right now. I would hope in the next few days [I’ll know], I hope they won’t leave me hanging for too long, so lets see.”
Red Bull test –
Tsunoda: “I am looking forward to it. It will be my first time that I am driving a different car in my Formula 1 career. It is still in the similar pool but the car will be much different. I am excited, we’ll see and enjoy it but at the same time, I am fully focused, obviously after the disappointed race, something good happens that I can look forward to and hope I can give some feedback that they can benefit for the future in their development.
“So, fully focused on that. I haven’t received any run plan yet, to be honest, I want to do what they ask me to do. I want to do everything what they asked with 100% performance, even if I don’t get a performance run, I can do other things that I can impress them. I still have a pretty good confidence in everything.”
Still chance –
Tsunoda: “As I always said throughout the season, I made pretty good statements throughout the season and it started in Bahrain. Everyone didn’t expect…I mean they expected Daniel to be in Red Bull, he’s not. What’s next? Still I am able to improve. Obviously, in some races I could have done better but at the same time, I was consistent in terms of how I was able to extract from the car in every race compared to my teammate.
“Obviously, in the test [with Red Bull], there could be some extra details that I can give [to already] what they are thinking, but it is upto them in the end as to what they are going to decide [if they sign me or not]. It is pretty clear what I have done.”
New teammate, harsh on Perez –
Verstappen: “I don’t know, it is upto the team. I always worked really well with Checo, he’s great guy. It is very rare to have a teammate like him, he’s always been very good and just a nice guy to be with. 100% [he suffered from the issues this year]. I work with him every weekend, week in, week out. I find people have been very harsh on him.
“Of course, some weekends maybe could have been better, actually, but sometimes people have been very harsh on him because he’s not an idiot. He’s always been regarded as a great driver and it’s been tough, but it’s been tough for everyone in the team because sometimes it was just very difficult to drive [the car].”
Sticking with Red Bull and Verstappen, the FIA revealed what the Dutchman has to do as part of his community service for swearing during the press conference in Singapore GP. During the prize giving ceremony in Rwanda, he will spend time with students prepping up the Affordable Cross Car.
“The FIA has announced the details of Max Verstappen’s ‘work of public interest’ duty linked to the stewards’ penalty for the use of unacceptable language during the 2024 Singapore Grand Prix drivers’ press conference,” read an FIA statement stated. “Verstappen will travel to the FIA Awards Ceremony, which takes place as part of the General Assemblies next week in Kigali, Rwanda to collect his fourth consecutive FIA Formula 1 World Championship trophy.
“While in Kigali he will undertake some work with junior competitors as part of the grassroots development programme organised by the Rwanda Automobile Club [RAC]. The activity will involve an FIA Affordable Cross Car, which was built locally in Rwanda by the RAC from blueprints provided by the FIA. Design blueprints for the Level 2 category Affordable Cross Car project have been delivered to the global network of 147 National Sporting Authorities [ASNs].”
Here’s all from Christian Horner, Sergio Perez before the Abu Dhabi race
Here’s Christian Horner in response
Here’s George Russell, Toto Wolff bearing it all
Here’s George Russell on Max Verstappen
Here’s Max Verstappen, Christian Horner on George Russell
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact