With just four podiums in the entirety of the 2024 season, Sergio Perez obviously had a miserable campaign. However, the Canadian GP weekend was so bad that Guenther Steiner referred to the Mexican as the ‘w*nker’ of that week.
The former Haas Team Principal admittedly had good reason to believe so. “You get a two-year contract, you qualify 18th and you crash in the race trying to go from 17th to 16th,” Steiner explained on the Red Flags podcast.
Red Bull offered Perez an early contract extension heading into the race in Montreal in June, with the hope that the 34-year-old would get out of his slump knowing that his future was secure. However, it seemed to have the completely opposite effect.
Qualifying into Q3 became a rarity for Perez in the weeks to follow, which ended up affecting his points-scoring ability in races. For a team like Red Bull, which was vying for the Constructors’ Championship title, this was unacceptable and the extension would bite back eventually.
Some interesting points scored totals:
Alex Albon in his last 12 races with Red Bull: 69
Pierre Gasly in his 12 races with Red Bull: 63
Sergio Perez in the last 12 races of 2024: 34Only one was driving a car that their teammate won the WDC in. pic.twitter.com/HNBm5Rys9i
— Daniel Valente ️ (@F1GuyDan) December 18, 2024
Perez’s underperformances would ultimately contribute to Red Bull’s downfall as the team finished P3 in the standings behind McLaren and Ferrari. It was a huge step down from their Championship success in both 2022 and 2023, which perhaps could have been avoided had they parted ways with Perez early.
Why did Red Bull not switch their drivers when Perez started underperforming?
Red Bull is infamous for sacking drivers quickly if they fail to match expectations. Ask Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, and Alex Albon — all drivers who lost their place at the Milton-Keynes-based outfit for not matching their teammates’ standards.
But why did Red Bull hold on to Perez, whose underperformances began all the way in 2023? Per F1 expert Peter Windsor, the answer was money.
Because of Perez’s massive popularity in Latin America and Mexico, he helped bring an enormous amount of sponsorship money to Red Bull. It was this ‘greed’ that made them hold on to the Guadalajara-born driver until it was too late, and even then, Red Bull had to forego a huge undisclosed sum to part ways with him. Per former World Champion Nico Rosberg, that sum is around $16 million.
