Red Bull rubbish claims in Verstappen team-mate update

Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko has stated the team’s driver line up will be confirmed in the coming days, whilst shutting down speculation over financial settlements.

The Austrian wrote in his Speedweek column that some of the sums mentioned in relation to solving its driver crisis are “complete nonsense.”

The Milton Keynes squad is in the midst of meeting an equitable resolution with Sergio Perez, who is contracted to the team next year.

The 34-year-old underperformed significantly through much of the 2024 F1 season, making his position alongside Max Verstappen untenable.

However, due to the six-time constructors’ champions offering him a contract extension earlier in the year, it must now pursuit different ways of extracting Perez from his seat.

Towards the end of the campaign, team principal Christian Horner called on the driver to reach his own conclusions, but the Mexican had dug his heels in, affirming that he will not voluntarily forfeit his drive.

Having escaped dismissal over the summer, a second round of crunch talks awaited Perez come season’s end, with Marko now sharing that news will be conveyed soon.

“We will be announcing news in the next few days about what the driver pairing will look like next year,” the 81-year-old wrote before waving away rumours about the cost the team might be forced to incur.

“There is a lot of speculation and transfer fees are being mentioned that are complete nonsense.”

How Red Bull might reach an agreement with Perez, if at all possible, is not yet clear, but there is desire from within the team to elevate either Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda from Racing Bulls.

The New Zealander is still favourite for promotion, which would allow reserve driver and F2 runner-up Isack Hadjar to complete its second team pairing.