Sergio Perez signed a two-year contract extension with Red Bull ahead of this year’s Canadian GP, which was surprising because of the Mexican’s dismal form. Red Bull, however, knew what they were dealing with and added performance clauses to his deal, which Perez is now close to not fulfilling.
As reported by RacingNews365, there are two such clauses.
- The first clause allows Red Bull to replace Sergio Perez after the Belgian GP (before the summer break starts) if he’s over 100 points behind teammate Max Verstappen.
- The second gives Red Bull the same right if he’s more than five places behind his teammate in the championship standings. This clause is understood to be applicable throughout the season.
| Sergio Perez’s performance clauses include not being more than 100 points behind Max Verstappen after the Belgian GP.
The gap is 119 points right now.
Another one is that he cannot be more than five places behind Verstappen in the standings. #F1 #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/1FpYI3alIz
— Fastest Pitstop (@FastestPitStop) July 7, 2024
Right now, Perez is not meeting either of the aforementioned requirements, which officially puts him in danger of losing his seat. The gap to Verstappen is at 137 points following last weekend’s British GP. And Perez is 6th in the standings whereas the Dutchman is in P1.
There are only two races left before the summer break gets underway, which for Perez is the official deadline. His points-scoring opportunities in these two weekends (Hungary and Belgium) will also be limited, as there aren’t any Sprint races. As such, the Guadalajara-born driver has two final attempts to save his Red Bull future.
Christian Horner admits there is immense pressure on Sergio Perez
Horner defended Perez’s underperformances for the majority of the season. But even he agrees that the latter is under immense pressure.
As quoted by the Racer, he said, “Checo, of course he’s under pressure. That’s normal in Formula 1. And when you’re underdelivering, that pressure only mounts. He’s aware of that. He knows that.”
Perez has to perform not just for himself, but also for Red Bull for the team to trust him in the future. The Milton-Keynes-based team isn’t the most dominant in F1 anymore. And if Perez doesn’t perform, Verstappen will find it extremely difficult to single-handedly win them the Constructors’ Title, again.
