F1
Sergio Perez had been Max Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate for four seasons and extended contract by two more years in June but endured a troubled 2024 campaign; Red Bull to now decide between Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda as replacement, but Lawson is understood to be getting the seat
Friday 20 December 2024 07:19, UK
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Sergio Perez will no longer race for Red Bull after they agreed to part ways.
No replacement for the Mexican driver next to world champion Max Verstappen for the 2025 season has yet been announced, although Sky Sports has understood for several weeks that Liam Lawson will land the drive in a promotion from junior team RB.
In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports News reflecting on Perez’s departure, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said a decision had yet to be made between Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda as to who would replace the Mexican.
“Essentially it will be a choice between Yuki and Liam,” said Horner.
Red Bull said they would announce Verstappen’s next team-mate in due course.
Perez joined Red Bull in 2021 and claimed five of his six career grands prix victories at the team but endured a hugely-troubled 2024 campaign.
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Despite being awarded a new two-year contract in June after a promising start to the season, he last stood on the podium at the Chinese Grand Prix in April in a year Verstappen won his fourth consecutive world title.
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Perez finished the season by scoring just nine points across the final eight grands prix weekends, results which heavily contributed to Red Bull failing to retain the Constructors’ Championship and finishing third behind McLaren and Ferrari.
An end-of-year exit from the team had therefore appeared increasingly likely for months for a driver who will now definitely be absent from the F1 grid for the first time since his 2011 debut next year with all the non-Red Bull seats taken.
In a statement announcing his departure on Wednesday, Perez said: “I’m incredibly grateful for the past four years with Oracle Red Bull Racing and for the opportunity to race with such an amazing team.
“Driving for Red Bull has been an unforgettable experience and I’ll always cherish the successes we achieved together. We broke records, reached remarkable milestones, and I’ve had the privilege of meeting so many incredible people along the way.
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“A big thank you to every person in the team from the management, engineers and mechanics, catering, hospitality, kitchen, marketing and communications, as well as everyone at Milton Keynes, I wish you all the best for the future.
“It has also been an honour to race alongside Max as a team-mate all these years and to share in our success. A special thank you to the fans around the world, and especially to the Mexican fans for your unwavering support every day. We’ll meet again soon. And remember…Never give up.”
Eighth in the Drivers’ Championship – 71 points behind seventh-placed Lewis Hamilton and 285 points behind world champion Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen
Lowest percentage contribution of team’s total points among top four outfits – 26 per cent
Nine points across the final eight Grand Prix weekends (Verstappen – 134) and 49 points across the final 18 weekends (Verstappen – 301)
No podium finishes in final 19 Grands Prix
Six Q1 exits and three Q2 exits in qualifying this season
Outqualified Verstappen once in the last 41 attempts
Amid the expectation that the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix earlier this month would be Perez’s swansong for the team after four seasons, Red Bull management held discussions with the 34-year-old about his future last week as they looked to come to an agreement on what happened next.
Speaking to Sky Sports News, Red Bull boss Horner said: “He’s been a fantastic member of this team. It’s been a tough year for him but he’s a great person and of course played such a key role in the 2021 Drivers’ Championship, 2022 and 2023 Constructors’ titles.
“He was second in the Drivers’ Championship last year, he’s won five grands prix in our cars.
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“But he reflected after the season and we sat down and discussed it last week about the next steps, and he’s decided he’s going to take a bit of time out, take a sabbatical from Formula 1 essentially.
“So we’re sad to see him leave the team but obviously it’s time for him to spend with his young family as well, and what he wants to do in the future.”
Perez had recovered from a sustained slump in form, particularly in qualifying, mid-way through 2023 to start this year with four podiums in the opening five races before his pace tailed off again during a period when Red Bull’s rivals eroded the team’s previous advantage, in a loss of form he never recovered from.
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Asked what went wrong for the experienced driver, Horner said: “I think that’s the thing, he’s not really quite sure. Of course, the car became more narrow in its performance window, and he struggled with that compared to Max.
“But obviously such an enormous gulf in points difference between the two drivers. He was struggling with that, and that of course then puts more pressure on him.
“And then the harder you try, sometimes the slower you go. And it became almost like a vicious circle for him. There were flashes of old form in Azerbaijan but unfortunately that didn’t translate into points. It’s been a hugely frustrating campaign for him and of course that’s hurt us quite badly in the Constructors’ Championship.”
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Horner said either Lawson or Tsunoda, who drive for Red Bull’s sister team RB, would now be called up to the main outfit for 2025 with Sky Sports understanding that it will ultimately be the 22-year-old New Zealander who gets the nod.
“We have all the information that we need,” said Horner of the decision.
“Essentially it will be a choice between Yuki and Liam. Both have got strong credentials.
“We tested Yuki recently at the tyre test in Abu Dhabi for a chance for him to work with the engineering team. Liam has done a lot of testing with us behind the scenes this year as well and has driven very well in the six or seven races that he’s had.
“So, we have all the information. We’re just looking at and considering all of that, speaking with the engineering team as well, and we’ll come to a conclusion in the coming days.”
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Horner added: “The most important thing for us next year, in what will be arguably the tightest season in F1 for many, many years, is to make sure that we have two drivers that are performing as closely as possible against… we’re going to have a Hamilton-Leclerc line-up [at Ferrari] next year.
“We’ve already seen Norris-Piastri [at McLaren], what that is capable of. And of course George Russell with another newcomer in Antonelli [at Mercedes]. It’s going to be very tight next year and so the decisions that we make will have that in mind. What is the best line-up that we can field at Red Bull Racing?”
If Lawson is, as expected, is promoted to the main Red Bull team, then 20-year-old Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar – who finished runner-up in this year’s F2 championship – is set to partner Tsunoda at RB.
For a driver who for most of his 14-year career has been regarded as one of the grid’s most consistent and reliable points scorers, Perez’s struggles for consistent form over the past two seasons in one of the grid’s fastest cars has proved puzzling and, for both driver and team, hugely frustrating.
Perez joined Red Bull for the 2021 season after the team went against their tried-and-trusted policy of only recruiting drivers from their own young-driver pool after two years in which the initial replacements for Daniel Ricciardo – first Pierre Gasly and then Alex Albon – struggled for form and confidence next to an ever-improving Verstappen.
That decision to go for experience was justified in that first season as Perez won in Azerbaijan, after Verstappen had retired with tyre failure, and scored regular top-six finishes, although arguably his most important contribution came in the controversial conclusion to the campaign in Abu Dhabi when he held up leader Lewis Hamilton midway in a race which eventually saw Verstappen win his maiden title on the last lap.
Perez’s delay of Hamilton earlier on saw the Mexican earn the nickname from the team of the ‘Minister of Defence’.
With Red Bull acing the new regulations from the start of 2022 and Verstappen soon starting to dominate, Perez won two races that year, impressively on the streets of Monaco and Singapore, although lost out on second in the Drivers’ Championship to Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
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A particularly strong start to 2023 saw him share two wins apiece with Verstappen but his form, particularly in qualifying, soon started to dramatically tail off despite his team-mate absolutely dominating the season.
A torrid run of form led to growing speculation he could even be replaced for 2024, but a late rally in the campaign saw Perez secure second in the championship to runaway champion Verstappen.
Perez seemed to have turned the corner at the start of 2024 with four podium finishes in the opening five rounds, but the turnaround only proved temporary despite a surprise two-year renewal to 2026 with the majority of the 24-race season instead proving miserable, with the Mexican’s poor form compounded by the fact Red Bull found themselves usurped for pace at the front of the field.
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Having decided against making a change to their line-up at this August’s mid-season summer break, Red Bull chiefs had hoped Perez’s form would eventually pick up, but September’s Azerbaijan GP aside, when he challenged at the front before ultimately retiring in a last-lap collision with Carlos Sainz, his form has continued to underwhelm amid a struggle for points and talks about an exit were held last week with senior management.
Perez himself last month described his 2024 season as having been “terrible”.
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