He’s fifth in the drivers championship in the fastest car, he’s yet to beat his teammate in any qualifying session or race and he’s putting his team’s championship defence at risk, but Sergio Pérez has signed a fresh deal keeping him with Red Bull Racing for at least another two seasons.
Sometimes the power of incumbency is just too great to deny.
The move will trigger some soul-searching for Daniel Ricciardo, who has been denied the chance to return to Red Bull Racing for at least another two long seasons. It will also spur the next phase of the driver market.
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A new deal for Pérez seemed fanciful, even laughable, only a few months ago. The Mexican’s form was so grim for so much of 2023 that the final rounds of last year were spent asking whether Red Bull Racing might even pull the trigger early.
The start of his 2024 campaign has been solid and unspectacular — two things his team clearly values as it steadies itself ahead of the 2026 rules era.
But then the last two rounds, in Imola and Monte Carlo, have seen the return of 2023-spec Pérez. Eliminated in Q2 and Q1 respectively, he’s scored just four points and dropped to fifth in the standings behind Charles Leclerc, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz, all of which have won races before him this season.
More alarming, however, is that Red Bull Racing’s margin over Ferrari has been sliced down to just 24 points. With both the Scuderia and McLaren appearing much more competitive after a series of May upgrades and comprising even-scoring driver line-ups, Pérez is suddenly exposed as the weakest link in Red Bull Racing’s defence of its third consecutive constructors championship.
And yet while all that rests on his shoulders, a new contract has been stuffed into his pocket.
There is some method to Red Bull Racing’s madness, however.
PÉREZ REALLY HAS IMPROVED THIS SEASON
It’s ironic that Pérez needed a worse start to 2024 than he had last year to prove he had what it takes to secure a new deal.
His 2023 campaign started with great fanfare, having scored two victories in the first four races plus a pole position in Saudi Arabia. He identified himself as a championship challenger ahead of the Miami Grand Prix, where victory from pole would have put him in the title lead for the first time in his career.
But unbeknown to him at the time, Verstappen had unlocked something in the car at the previous round in Azerbaijan, finding a new level of understanding on how to set it up to his liking.
Verstappen beat Pérez in Miami from ninth on the grid in a display of pure domination, the first of a record-breaking 10 victories in a row.
Pérez was mentally destroyed, and in a forlorn attempt to match his preternatural teammate, he fell into a spiral of form so bad it almost ended his career.
Though Verstappen was sufficiently dominant to win the constructors title on his own, Pérez only just scraped into second in the drivers championship in the final month of the season.
His head-to-head statistics from last year paint a brutal picture of underperformance.
Qualifying in 2023
Head to head: Pérez down 2-20
Result: Pérez 6.09 places behind (outright worst of any teammate combination)
Time: Pérez 0.573 seconds behind (second worst)
Races in 2023
Head to head: Pérez down 2-18
Result: Pérez 3.05 places behind (third worst)
Points: Pérez behind 285-575 (49.56 per cent, fifth best)
Aussie claims podium at dramatic Monaco | 01:16
Pérez has started 2024 in a new frame of mind.
Of course he’d never say it out loud, but he’s gone back to basics. He appears to no longer compare himself to Verstappen, focusing instead on what he needs from a car that’s clearly closer to the edge than many would have believed in previous seasons.
It’s illustrated the clear performance gap between him and his teammate, but it’s also delivered him a much more consistent opening eight rounds, most of which he spent comfortably second in the drivers standings.
Qualifying in 2024
Head to head: Pérez down 0-8
Result: Pérez 4.38 places behind (third worst)
Time: Pérez 0.317 seconds behind (fourth worst)
Races in 2024
Head to head: Pérez down 0-6
Result: Pérez 2.33 places behind (fourth worst)
Points: Pérez behind 107-169 (63.31 per cent, fourth best)
If you were to exclude Pérez’s qualifying stinkers in Imola and Monaco, the average qualifying difference between him and Verstappen would shrink to 2.17 places (fourth best among any teammate combination).
“Checo has had a strong start to 2024, with second places in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Japan and then his podium in China,” team boss Christian Horner said. “The past few races have been tough — there is convergence on the grid — but we are confident in Checo and look forward to his return to proven form and performance that we so often see.”
The signs of improvement are clear, and given Verstappen’s status as one of Formula 1’s best, the still-large size of some of the gaps are perhaps less damning than they might appear.
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PÉREZ IS THE BEST NUMBER TWO ON THE MARKET
Not to be forgotten is that Pérez is a proven and established Formula 1 star. He was a race winner and podium getter before arriving at Red Bull Racing, and his racecraft is usually of a very high quality — it’s no exaggeration to say Verstappen’s 2021 championship is owed to Pérez’s superb mid-race defence ahead of Lewis Hamilton around the pit stop window, which ultimately prevented the Briton from pitting behind the late safety car.
He just has the misfortune of being compared to one of the best to sit in a racing car. His reputation was never going to survive this chapter of his career intact.
But Red Bull Racing already has its superstar in Verstappen, around whom the entire team is formed. It doesn’t need another one.
The ideal second driver is one who can win on their day but who is otherwise a low-maintenance performer during the season. It’s one who causes no political pressure and who is willing to play the team game.
Now in his fourth season with Red Bull Racing, Pérez has never fit that mould better. Implicit in his driving and his attitude this year is that he’s finally accepted this is the role he must fulfil if he’s to keep his Formula 1 career alive in a competitive seat.
So far, even accounting for his mini slump in late May, Pérez’s points have been enough to keep Red Bull Racing afloat in the constructors standings, even if the margin is surprisingly narrow.
With the previously elusive one-two in the drivers championship now complete, Pérez’s position on the individual title table no longer really matters.
As long as he can play a role in securing both titles, Pérez can argue he’s the right man for the job.
CARLOS SAINZ COULDN’T OFFER CRUCIAL CONTINUITY
While all the above makes sense, there’s no doubting that it’s uninspiring logic.
That’s particularly true when Carlos Sainz is on the market.
Sainz has been hanging out for a seat at Red Bull Racing ever since he was told he would be pushed out of Ferrari for 2025. He’s reportedly broken through multiple deadlines set by Audi to sign for 2025 in the hope that Milton Keynes might choose him. Unfortunately for him, it’s come to nothing.
Having blossomed into the complete package at Ferrari, there’s no doubt Sainz would have been a trade up on Pérez over a single lap and over a race stint. While it’s up for debate just how close a match he is for Verstappen, no-one doubts that the Spaniard would win more races than the Mexican over a season and offer Verstappen a bigger run for his money.
That, however, would come at the cost of a greater risk of team disharmony.
Red Bull Racing has already suffered much instability in 2024. It was only a few months ago that Horner was rocked by allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour. There was subsequently a purported leak of WhatsApp messages that gave the distinct impression of being a hit job.
Jos Verstappen publicly called for Horner’s head, and Max Verstappen threatened to quit the team if Red Bull motorsport adviser Helmut Marko was forced out, as the Austrian managed suggested could happen in what was shaping up to be a moment of significant self-immolation at the reigning constructors champion.
For now a delicate peace prevails, but no-one is sure how durable it is. Various appeals against findings that exonerated Horner are in train.
The Verstappen camp is the volatile element in this mix. Jos in particular has been totally unafraid to publicly voice his displeasure about what he has perceived to be moments the team hasn’t been completely focused on his son.
Dropping Pérez — who, admittedly, the Verstappen family has had problems with in the past — for Sainz, who would arrive expecting to challenge the status quo, would be a potentially explosive decision just as things had begun to settle down.
With the team preferring a complementary rather than an antagonistic teammate for its star driver, Sainz was never going to be considered so long as Pérez could manage the bare minimum.
“Continuity and stability are important for the team, and both Checo and Max are a successful and robust partnership, securing our first ever one-two finish for the team in the championship last year,” Horner said.
“We will need to work hard to retain our titles, but we are assured in our line-up and with the team as a whole, which is imperative in what is shaping up to be a close fought championship this year.”
‘Why did he try to attack me?!’ | 00:52
WHAT ABOUT THE REST OF THE DRIVER MARKET — AND DANIEL RICCIARDO?
Red Bull Racing’s call on the grid’s most sought-after seat releases several other drivers to take their own next steps.
Sainz is reportedly holding on for a phone call from Mercedes, but Lewis Hamilton’s seat is likely to be filled by young gun Andrea Kimi Antonelli instead, leaving the Spaniard to seek refuge in the bottom half of the grid.
Sauber, which will become Audi in 2026, has been chasing his signature for years, but the dire state of the Swiss team means even the might of German auto giant Audi will take years to translate into on-track competitiveness. Williams, which is already on the road to recovery, is said to be in the running to sign Sainz instead.
Pérez’s retention will also trigger Yuki Tsunoda to consider his future. The Japanese driver has said he would consider offers from rival teams if it became clear Red Bull Racing had no intention of signing him. That much is now abundantly clear given his sparkling form has done nothing to turn heads at Milton Keynes.
RB, however, is comfortably the best of the backmarkers and could end the year competing with Aston Martin for fifth in the standings. He’d need a very attractive offer to want to leave.
Ironically it’s what Tsunoda chooses to do in the aftermath of the Pérez announcement that will have the most bearing on Daniel Ricciardo’s future.
Ricciardo made his Formula 1 comeback intending to take Pérez’s seat next year but has ended up as collateral in the process.
He’s yet to present a compelling case for promotion despite flashes of excellence, like his sprint performance in Miami. Time has now run out on his quest to get back into a race-winning car.
It’s unclear what his future holds and whether he can continue extending his career.
Liam Lawson is waiting in the wings as RB’s reserve driver, and he’s been promised a seat next season.
If Tsunoda were to leave, Ricciardo would likely be retained to partner the New Zealander.
But if Tsunoda were to stay — and assuming no big upturn in form from the Aussie — Ricciardo would be the weakest link and face the end of his career for the second time in as many years.