F1 News: Red Bull Reveals What's Next For Sergio Perez After 'Significant Gap'

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that the team will evaluate Sergio Perez's 2024 season performance before deciding on an "appropriate way forward" for 2025. The driver lineup for both Red Bull and its junior team VCARB will be finalized only after this review process.

Perez has been a topic of discussion this season due to the performance gap with his teammate Max Verstappen which is less than half of the Dutchman's tally of 437 points after the season finale in Abu Dhabi. While he secured four podium finishes in the first five Grands Prix of the season, his form suffered hugely after the Miami Grand Prix.

Red Bull even signed a two-year contract extension with him in June to try and clear his mind of potential worries about his future with the team but that didn't help either. Red Bull then realized its RB20 car was suffering from performance issues, with even Max Verstappen struggling with its effects. Eventually, as the problem was addressed ahead of the race in Austin, Perez's form still remained poor.

A big impact of Perez's lackluster performance was seen on Red Bull in the Constructors' Championship, as the team lost its grip on the top two positions to McLaren and Ferrari during the latter half of the season. The season finale at Yas Marina Circuit saw Perez get knocked out of the race in the second lap after making contact with Valtteri Bottas' Sauber C44 F1 car. Horner reckons a discussion with the Mexican driver is the first step in finalizing the driver lineup for the 2025 season. He said:

“Obviously, those discussions will happen between Checo [Perez] and the team.

“Now we’ve got the season out of the way, we’ll sit down with him and reflect on the season, and obviously, where it’s gone wrong.

“Collectively, we will work out what is the right and appropriate way forward. Checo has been a great servant of this team.

“Thinking back to this race in 2021 – the contribution that he made, the 2022 and ’23 Constructors’ World Championships, five race victories, second in last year’s Drivers Championship… he’s done an awful lot for this team.”

Horner added that while all permutations and combinations were ready for the 2025 driver lineup of both teams, he admitted he's taking things one step at a time. He said:

“We’ll sit down and reflect on this season and how we move forward.

“There’s no immediate rush.

“All the permutations are available to us internally. So I think the first thing is to sit down with Checo and have that conversation now that the season is completed.”

Discussing the significant points gap between Perez and Verstappen this season and reflecting on the competitive lineups rival teams have prepared for next year, Horner continued:

“I think you can see the importance of having two drivers scoring on a regular and collective basis in the Constructors’ Championship is crucial.

“Ferrari will be strong with their lineup next year, and McLaren has a strong lineup.

“Mercedes will have an inexperienced driver in one of their seats. For us, it’s very important that both of our drivers are delivering and there’s not a significant gap.”

The team boss refused to speculate about a possible lineup for 2025. He said:

“Sitting here now, he’s still our driver. So it would be wrong for me to speculate on what next year may look like until he and I have sat down and discussed this year, and we reflect on it as a team.”