Sergio Perez makes his feelings known about uncertainty around his future with Red Bull
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has expressed confidence about his future with the Austrian team going into the next season. The Mexican driver has been under scrutiny from the media and the Milton Keynes outfit given his performances in the 2024 season compared to his teammate Max Verstappen.
Despite his relative underperformance, Red Bull signed a contract extension with the six-time race winner ahead of the Monaco GP this season which sees him racing for it until the end of the 2025 season. With many predicting that he may be replaced by Liam Lawson or Franco Colapinto, he was asked during the pre-race press conference about being 100% confident about his drive next year.
"Yeah, exactly," Sergio Perez replied.
When asked about his contract details, Perez responded:
"I don't speak. I've been 14 years in the sport and I don't speak about my contracts publicly. So I will not comment on that. I know exactly where I am and I will not speak about it publicly."
After helping the team win two straight Constructor's Championships, it looks likely that the 34-year-old's inconsistent results may cost it this year's title, losing to either McLaren or Ferrari.
Sergio Perez gives his take on his struggles in the 2024 season
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez told the media that it would be difficult for the people outside the team to be completely familiar with his struggles in the 2024 season. He said he couldn't extract the maximum from the RB20 like his teammate Max Verstappen.
"Yeah, I think it's very difficult for people to understand that they're not part of the team or are not on a daily basis, from one race to another, let's say you are so far away. I think when you are not able to extract 100% out of your car, it's irrelevant how good your car is. And this is what happened," Sergio Perez said.
"I haven't been able to extract 100% out of my car because of the difficulties I've had in the last few months with it. And I think that's the main issue. You know, I think you go through periods and I think as a team, we are understanding and we're working really hard to make sure that we can fix them."
Perez believed the team has been closing in on its rivals in terms of setup in the past couple of weekends given its performance in Sao Paulo and Las Vegas. Although the Mexican driver was only able to score one point in the last two races, he was confident that the Lusail International Circuit would be a "good one" for the team.