F1 has dismissed two fears it once had about Sergio Perez losing his Red Bull seat

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Sergio Perez faces an uncertain future at Red Bull after a disappointing 2024 Formula 1 campaign.

The Mexican has not consistently finished high enough in the points to enable Red Bull to defend its Constructors’ Championship crown, which could cost them millions of pounds in prize money at the end of the year.

Speculation over whether Perez would be dropped in favour of another driver has been rife all season, with Daniel Ricciardo once in the running before he was himself replaced by Liam Lawson due to unsatisfying results at VISA CashApp RB.

Lawson’s seat at RB is said to be a rehearsal for a potential promotion to Red Bull, although so far the team has been reluctant to replace Perez.

Part of this is down to the fact that Red Bull traced back its problems to an upgrade made to their car in 2023, which put them on the wrong path for this year’s challenger. But even with the corrected floor upgrades, Perez is still underperforming compared to Verstappen.

His qualifying results are a testament to this, with the last two races seeing Perez set the 10th fastest time (Austin) and 17th fastest (Mexico), while Verstappen started from the front row.

It is now looking increasingly likely that Perez will be replaced, and according to Joe Saward, two other key reasons that F1 insiders feared are also no longer an issue.

F1 no longer fears potential marketing and Mexico GP promotion impacts from Sergio Perez axe

Although Red Bull realised part of the reason for Perez’s poor performances was down to the tricky RB20 setup window, they also feared the potential backlash from axing the Mexican.

But with the arrival of new talent on the grid in the last few races, the impact of Perez leaving is now not as big as once thought according to Saward.

“One of the reasons that Perez has been able to survive as long as he has at Red Bull, despite his lack of results, is the fear that losing him could impact on F1 in the Americas. However, the arrival in recent weeks of Franco Colapinto, with an enormous fan following from Argentina, has given the sport hope that losing Perez will not be the end of the world,” wrote Saward.

“There is also a good chance that Brazil’s Gabriel Bortoleto could end up in an Audi, which would be great for F1. The other fear about losing Perez was that the Mexican GP could not survive without him, but Alejandro Soberon, the man in charge of CIE which promotes the race, believes that the race is strong enough to continue without Checo.”

What Damon Hill was told about Sergio Perez’s contract

Perez signed a contract extension with Red Bull midway through the season that should last through the 2025 season, as the team saw him as a continuity option.

The contract might be key to how long Perez has left in F1 as there are certain performance clauses he needed to meet. One of those he did not achieve midway through the season, which was to stay within at least 100 points of Verstappen.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Red Bull Racing from engine to Ford links

Damon Hill spoke to Perez’s manager and they were ‘confident’ that he has a ‘watertight contract’ with the team through the 2025 season.

Either way, the team was not impressed by his Mexico GP performance with Christian Horner left ‘disappointed’ when he qualified towards the back of the field.