Sergio Perez has kept his Formula 1 seat at Red Bull and will continue to race for the team in the second half of the 2024 season, according to multiple reports.
The Mexican driver has endured intense scrutiny about his future after a torrid run of form. Since Austria, he has only scored 20 points, the worst of any driver in the top four teams in the championship.
Reports indicate that Red Bull held a meeting about Perez on Monday, following the Belgian GP.
Perez finished a disappointing eighth on Sunday but was promoted to seventh following George Russell’s disqualification.
Pressed again about his future following the race, he remained defiant:
“I’ve said it before. Yesterday I had a good qualifying, a good day. It doesn’t change anything,” he told the media on Sunday.
“I think we have too much going on in the team, a lot of things that we have to focus on, and we cannot waste any energy with all this speculation surrounding.
“So this is the last time I will speak about the future, so just to make it clear for everyone, I will not be speaking anymore. I will not answer any more questions about the future.”
Perez’s poor run of form has seen Red Bull’s Constructor’s Championship lead eroded to just 42 points, despite the outfit’s dominant package in the early stages of the season.
The organization boasts a plethora of talent waiting in the wings, including RB veteran Daniel Ricciardo, team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, and the promising Liam Lawson.
Following Sunday’s race, Team Principal Christian Horner praised Perez as a “great team player”, but hinted that the team was considering replacing him.
Ultimately, it appears Red Bull has settled on stability for the second half of 2024, choosing to back Perez despite his poor run of form.
Starting with Max Verstappen’s home race at Zandvoort after the break, Red Bull will have to contend with a performant McLaren and resurgent Mercedes, the latter having won three of the last four races.
As it stands, Perez sits 146 points adrift of team-mate Verstappen, behind both Ferrari and McLaren drivers as well as Lewis Hamilton, just seventh in the standings.
In 2023, Perez finished a comfortable second ahead of Hamilton but nearly 300 points behind the dominant Verstappen.
His struggle for form and points is also a testament to 2024’s much more competitive field, which has delivered seven different race winners from four teams.
In particular, Perez has struggled for form in qualifying, having exited Q1 four times so far this season.
