Perez addresses Red Bull F1 driver meeting speculation

Sergio Perez has rejected claims his Red Bull seat was in jeopardy when senior management met at the start of F1’s summer break.

The Mexican driver will remain alongside Max Verstappen for the final 10 rounds of the year, but was widely expected to be either sidelined or demoted to RB, with either Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson replacing him.

That ultimately did not happen, to the surprise of many, with Red Bull seemingly opting to retain its faith in Perez.

The Milton Keynes-based team is coming under increasing pressure from McLaren in the constructors’ championship and leads the Woking squad by just 42 points, having once held a 115-point advantage.

This led to what were slated as crunch-time talks between the Red Bull senior management after the Belgian Grand Prix, but Perez denies the meeting was about him or any of the other drivers in the team.

“It was mainly pure speculation,” Perez told media including RacingNews365 about the rumours he was on the chopping block.

“I think the meeting had nothing to do with the drivers, it was all about the performance. I already said everything I had to regarding speculation.”

Perez started the current season strongly, supporting Verstappen as the team swooped to three one-two finishes from the opening four rounds.

However, his performance cratered and heading into the Dutch Grand Prix at Zandvoort, the 34-year-old has scored just 28 points from the previous eight rounds.

When his form started to slip, Red Bull shored-up his future, extending his contract to at least the end of 2025 – with an option for an additional season.

But that did not arrest his loss of pace and it emerged that performance-based clauses could allow the team to replace him over the summer break.

Whilst that did not happen, Perez’s future post-2024 remains unclear, with Red Bull opting to only publicly confirm his seat until the end of the season. Despite that, the six-time grand prix winner remains committed to re-capturing his early season form.

“I’m here, fully committed to the team. I have got a contract for the next two years, and I’m fully committed to Red Bull, to turn things around – I’ve said everything I have to,” he added.