“I spoke to Pierre Gasly before Perez signed the contract”- Helmut Marko has grim message for Red Bull junior drivers after Sergio Perez’s contract extension

Sergio Perez signed a contract extension with Red Bull ahead of the Monaco GP that will keep him at the team until the end of the 2024 season. 

Perez had a difficult start to life at Red Bull, but has picked up massively since then. He played a big role in Max Verstappen’s Title victory last season. This season, he has gone off to a start from the get go.

Seven races into the 2022 campaign, the Mexican sees himself P3 in the Drivers’ Championship Standings. He’s just 15 points away from Verstappen who’s in first place, so he can count himself as a part of this season’s Title battle. Team principal Christian Horner admitted that Perez will be free to battle Verstappen for the crown.

Red Bull rewarded Perez’s strong performance by extending his contract. He will now stay at the Milton-Keynes team until the end of the 2024 season. However for Red Bull junior drivers, it wasn’t pleasant news.

Pierre Gasly in particular will be looking elsewhere now that Red Bull have their driver line up set till 2024. Helmut Marko however, insists that they spoke to the Frenchman before making this decision.

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Pierre Gasly and other Red Bull juniors have to wait for another year

Red Bull’s advisor Marko insists that the team’s primary objective was to sort out the team’s immediate future. However, they don’t rule out any opportunity they want to provide their young drivers with.

Other than Gasly, the likes of Yuki Tsunoda Juri Vips, Jehan Daruvala, Liam Lawson are also part of Red Bull’s junior team. If Gasly somehow extends his AlphaTauri stay, it’s bad news for them.

“Before Perez signed his contract, of course I spoke to Gasly,” he said. “We have to see what happens after 2023. What is the alternative for him? I don’t think at the moment there is an alternative that would be significantly better than AlphaTauri.”

“We can probably assume that the current drivers will remain in their places. However, coronavirus is still present, so it could be that the youngsters will have to step in. Of course I hope no one gets injured, but they will have to keep waiting for another  year,” he added.

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