Checo Pérez’s era at Red Bull has ended. What scenarios are there?

Checo Pérez’s situation at Red Bull is critical and could be the end of his F1 career, but the matter is far from over because he has a current contract. Will the team terminate it?

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The situation of Sergio Perez on the team Red Bull is critical and could be the end of his career in the Formula 1but the matter is far from over, even though the circumstances and results of the Mexican pilot are increasingly alarming.

After 23 Grand Prix in 2024, Checo Pérez is in eighth place in the drivers’ championship with 152 points, for an average of 6.52 units per event, not counting that six of them had Sprint races.

In Qatar, the most recent GP and with one more to go, which will be on Sunday, December 8 in Abu Dhabi, Checo Pérez left blank, after failing in the Sprint and suffering a spin in Sunday’s race, when he was in fifth place.

In the last 17 Grand Prix of the season, Checo Pérez has not been able to finish in the Top 5, with a total of 49 points.

This has caused constant doubt in the media about whether Checo Pérez will continue or if he should continue as a driver. Red Bull in 2025.

That is where the discrepancy arises, while the driver assures “100 percent” that he will be on the grid in 2025, the Red Bull main team not only puts it in perspective but on Sunday after the race in Lusail assured that Checo Pérez is the one who must decide if he should continue, based on the current situation.

LAP 41 / 57

PEREZ OUT! 😔

The Red Bull spins off before the restart and loses drive, and it’s game over. #F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/yBO0NMStcD

— Formula 1 (@F1) December 1, 2024

The contract for 2025-26 is the key

When has it been seen that a driver with less than expected performance is the one who decides whether to leave a team or stay? These decisions are never made by the team leaders, but those decisions always have a cost and a risk and that is the part that Christian Horner does not clarify.

In May, Checo Pérez signed a contract extension for 2025 and an option for 2026. That deal has not yet started, but it contains clauses that Horner and Red Bull are not willing, at least now, to comply with, if they want to do without the Jalisco services.

Checo Pérez’s position of complete confidence that he will be on the grid in 2025 is based on the fact that his agent Julian Jakobi He arranged a contract, strong enough, so that the team would not find it so easy to get out of it.

Red Bull, which will no longer receive at least $20 million dollars as it is third in the Constructors Championshipwould have to assume Checo Pérez’s salary, or part of it, and it is estimated that it is around $14 million, in addition to some other penalties for ruling out the 2026 option so early and the fact that the Mexican is free when he is not There are free seats on the market.

It is unthinkable that Checo Pérez would give up on enforcing the contract and, as Horner said, would be “so wise and old enough” to make his own decision and leave empty-handed.

Pay Checo his termination like McLaren paid Ricciardo

Red Bull could, for some time or immediately after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, pay for Pérez’s termination, as McLaren recently did with Daniel Ricciardo.

Zak Brown and McLaren They assumed the expense of about 25-30 million dollars to let the Australian ‘Honey Badger’ go and replaced him with Oscar Piastri

Start 2025 and be under heavy scrutiny

A second option would be for Red Bull to wait for the 2025 contract to start running, have Checo Pérez’s work under strong scrutiny and, if he does not meet the performance they expect from him, terminate his contract after a handful of Great prizes, but with a considerably lower financial cost.

It is a double-edged sword, because if in reality they have already decided that Red Bull needs another teammate for Max Verstappen, if Checo Pérez has a good start, nothing guarantees that as the season progresses, it will happen, as has been customary, that the development of the car will complicate the Mexican situation and fall into a crisis again.

Or worse still, that the start will be difficult for Pérez and that will condition Red Bull’s opportunities in the Drivers Championship.

Horner’s words certainly sounded like a farewell or a search for a ‘worthy’ exit that hides an economic interest and that does not consider Red Bull’s turbulent season that began with a sexual scandal on his part and that has continued with the exit. of important elements such as Adrian Newey, Jonathan Wheatley and before others like Rob Marshall and Dan Fallows.

He RB20 It became a car that didn’t even Max Verstappen could not control or take it to the podium, then it must also be said that Checo Pérez has not been able to get the maximum out of the car and has made mistakes.

“He is not enjoying the situation he is in right now. He knows the pressures of this business, and we’re going to give him all the support we can until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi next weekend. And what he decides to do, it will be his decision at the end of the day,” said Horner when asked directly by Simon Lazenby if Checo Pérez should make the decision to step aside from the team after Abu Dhabi. “I think he is big enough. and wise enough to come to his own conclusions, but you know, there’s still one race left and we’re going to get to the end of Abu Dhabi and then see where we are.

Before the written press he reiterated what he said to Sky Sports: “Checo is having a very tough year, obviously the points on the table are what they are, we are focused on supporting him until the checkered flag in Abu Dhabi and obviously it is not a situation for Czech being in this position of speculation every week he is old and wise enough to know what the situation is, we will see what situation we will be in after Abu Dhabi.”

It was not an occurrence, it is something that Horner says out loud and that makes it clear that for Red Bull, the era of Czech Perez has finished, he even highlighted his contribution to Verstappen’s 2021 title and the subsequent ones in 2022 and 2023 for Constructors.

A tough winter negotiation Pérez-Red Bull

The third scenario would be, and it is very likely, that Checo Pérez does not decide anything nor does he want to unilaterally say “I am retiring”, as Horner suggested could happen in Abu Dhabi.

As we said, there is a contract, and Checo Pérez’s legal team will defend it and if it is in Red Bull’s interest to terminate it, that the team assume the financial consequences.

This will probably lead to heated negotiations that could conclude with an exit agreement that is, in the end, satisfactory for both sides, because if Checo Pérez starts in 2025 in a team that does not want him in its ranks and is only maintained by the signature of contract, you cannot expect great support or results.

The great dilemma: Who can replace Pérez?

The question came on Sunday at the press conference and Horner couldn’t answer it. Who can handle the pressure of being teammates? Max Verstappen?

“That’s a very good question,” said Christian Horner, who mentioned Yuki Tsunoda, Liam Lawson and Isaac Hadjar as part of the available talent, while subtly ruling out the option of looking at options in the market, specifically Franco ColapintoArgentinian who he sees with a permanent seat on the grid in the future, but perhaps not at Red Bull which has “a stable full of drivers.”

Checo Pérez has done what Horner defined as “the most difficult job in F1”, which is none other than being Verstappen’s teammate, but he also mentioned that the team’s nine victories in 2024 have been Max’s, while in The other three teams where they have obtained checkered flags have divided the wins between their two midfielders.

Tsunoda has flashes of being a good driver, but lacks consistency. In his defense he has been able to beat the teammates that have been placed on him after the departure of Pierre Gasly.

Liam Lawson is brave, aggressive, fast at times, but it’s not like he has proven to be a solution.

Hadjar is fighting for the Formula 2 title, but in the tests he has participated with Red Bull he has not done anything worth highlighting.

The ball is in Red Bull’s side, not Checo Pérez’s

Red Bull must evaluate the technical information it has about Checo Pérez’s performance, the quality of support it has had from its engineers and the rest of the team, the successes and mistakes of the driver and based on that decide whether or not it wants him to stay. the Mexican, but the decision is not the driver’s, as Christian Horner wanted to show, it is a team decision.

Red Bull ambassador role as an exit

According to the report published by AM850’s Nate Saunders, Checo cannot be outright fired, but he can be demoted to a brand ambassador position, something similar to what Daniel Ricciardo had in his contract and which ultimately caused the Australian to give up. a step back.

According to the report, Checo Pérez will meet with Red Bull managers on December 9 to discuss these issues.