Sergio Perez talks about contract clause as Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen add on the Red Bull F1 driver situation.
Despite having a contract signed, the rumours about Perez losing his Red Bull F1 seat doesn’t go away especially due to the performance he has been putting in. The latest came after Silverstone, as we head towards the summer break with a pending call.
It is natural as Perez says that everyone wants the Red Bull F1 seat, but the Mexican assures that he is not going anywhere. He admits of facing difficulties and not performing to his 100% but he insists of working hard to deliver results.
Tsunoda, meanwhile, throws his name in the hat and notes that he certainly deserves a look-in if Red Bull decides to change. He feels if they opt for Liam Lawson, that would be weird and that he hasn’t held any serious talks yet about a potential move.
Ricciardo and Verstappen understands the pressure that Perez is in, where the Australian recalled his media sessions at the time of McLaren when he was struggling. The Mexican states that he can’t stop the external noise per se, he can only work hard to deliver.
Want the Red Bull seat –
Perez: “I think a lot of drivers out there would love to have my seat. It’s obvious, no? It’s one of the top seats. It’s normal for Yuki to want to move up. It’s just normal when you are in a lower seat, you want to move up. That’s part of the nature of the sport. I’ve got nothing against it. It’s good to have higher ambitions in the sport. I just renewed my contact not long ago. I don’t think that’s relevant, for us, for the team. What’s relevant is we focus on track, we focus back in the factory, we focus on the things we can control. The rest is just external noise, that’s how it works.”
Tsunoda: “I am feeling ready, compared to the last three years. I am ready to fight against the top teams and for higher positions, even with Max or whatever. In the end they are the ones who are going to decide, and it’s not a thing I can control. I’m just focusing on what I have to do the next two races. Haas is getting very close, so I have to still focus on a lot of things with our team. Let’s see how it goes. But just same as the previous races, just focusing on what I have to do with my performance. I mean of course, otherwise, they [VCARB] won’t announce my seat like early stages in this year. Yes [I deserve seat next to Max].”
Lawson choice –
Tsunoda: “If they choose Liam, that would be weird. Liam did a really good job when he drove in the sim, but I think I did more than that. So, we’ll see how it goes. They know how to manage the drivers.”
Discussions with Red Bull –
Tsunoda: “Not a clear one. Well, casual chatting like in the hospitality. It all happens like that, I guess they’re not really rushing it, I guess Sergio Perez they announced that, the two races before the race before. And Sergio performed very well and if the driver is performing well, they don’t have reason to change drivers. In the end, all they’re doing is I think it’s always a good thing for Sergio, because they didn’t want to create any pressure and that’s definitely fair and also myself. in the end Red Bull want me to drive and focus on what I’m doing right now so we didn’t have like a serious conversation yet. Haas is getting very close, so I still have a lot of things to focus on with our team. Let’s see how it goes.”
Next two races important, pressure –
Tsunoda: “If the rumours are true, yes. But to be honest, I don’t know any exact situation around, to be honest, it’s probably the same as you guys. Less information than you guys probably. In the end, every race is very important. Like myself, the contract is not really fixed, for long years, and in the end, same things as usual to be honest. In that in a sense yes. I don’t feel so far much extra pressure. Those things will probably naturally come with the different situations, but so far there has been a lot more worse pressures than now. Probably now is good pressure rather than bad pressure compared to the last few years, not knowing what you’re going to do next year is worse. In the end, like I said, my focus is on the current Visa Cash App team and see how it goes.
Ricciardo: “I guess it depends how we’re spotlighted in the media, but the truth is every driver is under pressure. Even the ones that are killing it, there has been pressure for them to keep performing. So my point is that we all feel it. Obviously, I’ve been in the spotlight a bit this year, Checo’s in the spotlight [now]. Even after my good race in Montreal, I said: ‘Look, I need to do another good one because you’re only as good as your last race and one good weekend doesn’t quite let you off the hook. It temporarily does, but then it can quickly change.’ Yes, of course, I know.
“I’ve seen some statistics that Max has scored a lot more points than Checo and, of course, yes, they are expecting a bit more. But this is the sport. It’s what we’re in. We feel it all the time. It’s just who is in the spotlight [this] week. It’s up to us to obviously try to shut it out. And it’s not easy as well sometimes. If everyone is just always asking you questions about [your future] – you have this, you have that – it sometimes feels very negative or can sometimes feel heavy. But I think in my experience – and I include Checo here as well, because he’s also been in Formula 1 a similar amount of time – we have dealt with it enough that I think you learn just to realise to focus on the engineering, focus on the car setup and the rest. You hear it, but you have to just roll with it.”
Verstappen: “I wouldn’t word it like that because at the end of the day, we are teammates, we always try to give our feedback to the car, that’s also what Checo has been doing, he’s been always fully contributing to that. Of course, we cannot deny that the last few weekends have been a bit difficult [for him] – I would say also some were a bit unlucky. Like in qualifying, for example in Silverstone, that off. It cost you your qualifying and you start at the back and especially in a race like that, it is very difficult to progress. Also, people who start in front, race themselves backward, so it is tough. Naturally, he wants to do better, but I know that he’s working very hard, it’s not that he just takes it for granted or whatever.
“Hopefully here, when the car maybe suits his driving a bit more, everything feels a bit more connected, it can work a bit better for him. From our side, we just have to focus on performance – our car has been a bit tricky at times over a Friday, we were always chasing balance. As a driver, it’s very hard to be consistent because you’re always having to deal with different kind of balance issues – so it’s also not entirely fair to say that everything is his own fault, because even for myself the last few weekends have been very challenging to get the best out of the car. The team knows that, we try to get the car in a bit more of a nicer operating window, a bit more predictable and also you can built from FP1 to qualifying and into the race, with a stable balance. That is one thing that is lacking anyways.”
Media sessions –
Ricciardo: “It can feel relentless and obviously I experienced that a bit at McLaren. Those media sessions are not exactly enjoyable, so you’d be lying if you said: ‘Oh, it doesn’t bother me or take a little bit away.’ But you have to accept that and try to then just deal with it. I always try to be the bigger person in terms of [saying]: ‘That’s what I signed up for, I’m trying to be the best in the world at something and at times I’ll probably fall short and this is now what’s going to come with it.’ So you make your own bed and you just have to be OK laying in it sometimes if the sheets aren’t made. It’s a nice quote, I’ll copyright that…”
Red Bull family –
Ricciardo: “I think being in the Red Bull family, in this program – I’m not a junior anymore, but I know how it works – it’s always result-driven. I think if we are doing good enough, then we put ourselves in the best seat. If there is some movement, then we hold the power in our results. There’s much happening in F1, but at the end of the day it’s in our control with what we do behind the wheel and what the stopwatch says. So we try to control the controllables and I think, in that situation, quite a lot is in our hands.”
Contract clause –
Perez: “There’s nothing related to that. Obviously I cannot talk about my contract. What I said was the next two races are important for me, I want to go on holiday with a good spirit and I think it’s good for my side of the garage to go with a good spirit. I wasn’t talking about anything else. I’m fully focused to fully deliver. I will be here and here again next year and that’s nothing different. I’m just fully committed to myself.”
Not performing well –
Perez: “I haven’t been performing, first of all, at my 100% in the circumstances when you put yourself in difficult positions. I take a lot of responsibility for that. Obviously there’s been a lot of circumstances as well with different sort of races, so I think it’s a little bit of everything when you are in this vicious circle. We had a really strong Friday but then I messed up in Silverstone in qualifying. Then with the strategy in Silverstone we just throw the dice and see what happened and it didn’t work for us. The main thing is I’ve been in this business too long and I know it will only matter where I finish in Abu Dhabi. So let’s ride the rollercoaster and hopefully get back on form very soon.”
External noise –
Perez: “It’s difficult to shut down the external noise. But at the end of the day I come here to get my very best, my maximum effort and when I’m here, when I’m at home training or at home in the simulator I focus on the important stuff. At the end of the day the noise – I think it’s a lot bigger when you’re at Red Bull. But it’s the beauty of this challenge. It’s why I decided to sign and extend my contract with this team because I love the challenge. It’s really hard but it takes absolutely everything out of you and that’s why I wanted to continue here.”
Talks within, Perez offs –
Verstappen: “It doesn’t help, he knows that, it is natural but I feel like, he’s giving everything and that’s the only thing you can do, to tense up or stress about it, that is not going to help the situation as well. We just work as a team and everyone is very committed and of course everyone wants to help each other to be better. We don’t talk about the situation, we talk about what we can control and influence and that’s the car, to drive a faster car. We talk about the balance of the car, we talk about what we need from the car, that’s always been a strong need.”
Here’s Daniel Ricciardo on real test
Here’s Christian Horner on not surprising close 2024
Here’s Adrian Newey on RB17, Red Bull, future
Here’s Christian Horner on Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar
Here’s Christian Horner on Sergio Perez situation
Here’s link to a F1 Discord channel, join in to interact