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Despite having a multi-year contract, Sergio Perez's seat at Red Bull Racing is under threat for the 2025 season. In an interview with GQ Sports, the Mexican racer spoke about declining two opportunities to spend the last stage of his career at the top team.
While Perez had a better start for the 2024 season, his performance soon began dipping from the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix. The 34-year-old was unable to keep up with rivals like Lando Norris, Oscar Piastri, Carlos Sainz, and Charles Leclerc. Adding to his woes were the massive crashes at Monaco and Azerbaijan along with the DNF in Canada. Although he was criticized by fans, Perez received a multi-year extension contract mid-season.
During an interview with GQ Sport, Perez spoke about rejecting two Formula 1 teams for 2025 in order to spend his final years with one of the top teams in the sport.
"I had an opportunity, two opportunities, to change teams. When I looked at it, I thought, I really love the challenge I have at Red Bull. It’s a massive challenge being Max’s teammate. It’s a challenge that basically trains you for all of it. So I said, I want to spend my last part of my career at the top, at the very top, where the pressure, it’s full-on," Perez said.
"At the end of the day, when you go through a difficult period, there is a lot of talk. But ultimately, there is 90 percent of the grid who would have loved to have my career," he added.
Perez's aforementioned statement was shared on X by a Red Bull Racing fan page. Here's a look at the post, captioned:
"Checo reveals he had other teams offer him a seat."
As of now, Perez is placed eighth in the Drivers' table. Meanwhile, his teammate Max Verstappen is leading the championship. With six races to go, the Mexican is 187 points behind the reigning world champion.
"It was a disaster, complete disaster" - Sergio Perez deemed his Singapore Grand Prix weekend as a lost opportunity to undercut rivals
Unlike his teammate Max Verstappen who finished on the podium, Sergio Perez ended the Singapore Grand Prix in 10th position. The Mexican driver deemed the weekend as a complete disaster and a lost opportunity during the post-race media interaction.
"Yes, I think also the strategy, looking at it, when you see where Carlos (Sainz) finished (in P7 from P10 on the grid), probably we lost an opportunity to make more progress and undercut more people. Once we were on a similar tire age behind Nico (Hulkenberg), it was… that was pretty much it," Perez commented.
"It was a very… it was a disaster, complete disaster. We had a good Lap 1, we were up to P10 and that’s basically where we finished, so a bit of a shame in that regard," he added.
The #11 Red Bull Racing driver struggled behind William's rookie Franco Colapinto and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg for a large part of the Grand Prix, thereby losing his chance to finish higher on the grid.
