Christian Horner, Red Bull Formula 1 team boss, formally announced Sergio Perez as “our driver in 2024”. The announcements shuns the speculations over the Mexican’s future in F1.
The huge performance gap between team-mates Perez and Max Verstappen fueled the endless speculations. The Dutchman won consecutive nine race ramping his points to 339 with a gap of 138 points to the Mexican.
Recently, Helmut Marko – Red Bull racing advisor – commented on Perez performance which increased doubts on his future with Red Bull. He claimed that Perez remain unsure about keeping the contract in 2024 despite a running contract.
Daniel Ricciardo return with Red Bull and AlphaTauri is seen as a probable replacement for the Mexican in 2025.
However, Horner formally announce after the Zandvoort race that Perez will retain his seat in 2024.
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“Checo’s situation for next year is clear,” Horner stated. “He’s a Red Bull Racing driver. We have an agreement with him.
“Irrelevant of agreements, we’re pleased with the job that he’s doing. You saw his drive today, he was unlucky with the pitlane speed limiter [which cost Perez a five-second penalty that dropped him off the podium to fourth].
“He’s second in the world championship, he’s the only driver rather than Max to have won grands prix this year.
“It’s easy to beat up on him when the barometer is so high on the other side, but he will be our driver in 2024.”
Horner pointed to Verstappen’s dominance in the season while pointing to his performance that left everyone behind.
“Max is in a period of his career where he’s just simply untouchable and I don’t think there’s any driver on the grid that would be able to achieve what he’s been doing in that car,” he added.
“Being his team-mate is probably in some respects the most unenviable job to have because the barometer is so high.
“You’ve got to look at the performance on the timesheet and the results sheet. If Max hadn’t been there, Checo would have won another four or five races.
“So, he’s doing his job. He’s second in the world championship. You saw his performance today. He was unlucky to get the speeding fine. And hopefully he can add to his wins before the end of the year.”
