Perez set for Red Bull future showdown
Christian Horner has remained tight-lipped on Sergio Perez’s future ahead of a crunch meeting after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Perez’s tenure at the team, and in F1, is hanging by a thread after an abysmal season in which he scored just 48 points in the 17 races since the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as Red Bull finished third in the constructors’ championship.
Perez’s failure to score points – including just two (including one from a sprint) in the final five races – makes it increasingly unlikely he will partner Max Verstappen in 2025, with the two-year contract he signed ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix under-threat.
A meeting of senior Red Bull personnel is planned for Monday now the season is over, with Horner not giving any hints that Perez could be saved with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda – who will test the RB20 on Tuesday – the two candidates to replace him.
“Well look, let’s sit down with Checo and reflect on the year, it would be inappropriate to comment before that,” Horner told media including RacingNews365.
“Obviously those discussions will happen now the season is out of the way, we’ll sit down with him and reflect on the season and obviously where it has gone wrong, and collectively work out what is the right and appropriate way forward.
“Checo has been a great servant of the team going back to this race in 2021, the contribution that he made to the 2022 and 2023 constructors’ world championships, five race victories, second in last year’s drivers’ championship.
“He’s done an awful lot for this team, but we will sit down and reflect on the season and how we move forward, but there is no immediate rush and we have all the permutations available to us internally.
“It would be wrong for me to speculate on what next year may look like until he and I have sat down and reflected on it as a team.”
Horner on Lawson and Tsunoda
Horner also addressed Lawson and Tsunoda, with the New Zealander expected to be given the nod alongside Verstappen having only been on a six-race deal to replace Daniel Ricciardo at RB with nothing in place for 2025.
“Liam, in challenging circumstances has done a very good job, if you analyse what he’s done in the time he’s had and the race pace he’s had, he has done a good job,” said Horner.
“I think Yuki has done a good job, so in the event that anything were decided with Checo, they would be the candidates that we would want to watch.”
