Sergio Perez believes media scrutiny is “probably worse” for Red Bull drivers -with others on the grid also going through bad patches but without the intense focus. Securing second place in last year’s Drivers’ Championship, Red Bull not only honoured Perez’s contract for 2024, something that was debated during his 2023 qualifying slump, but went on to hand him a new deal after this year’s Monaco Grand Prix. Additional reporting by Thomas Maher But instead of rising to the occasion with his new two-year deal taking the pressure off of his shoulders, Perez went into the summer break on the back of a nine-race streak without a podium finish.
Slumping to seventh in the Drivers’ Championship as McLaren closed in on Red Bull in the Constructors’, team boss Christian Horner declared Red Bull “cannot run on one leg” . A week later, to the surprise of many, the team boss announced in their Milton Keynes headquarters that Perez would remain a Red Bull driver “after the summer break” . That at least for now put paid to speculation about who will be in the car when F1 returns from the break with the Dutch Grand Prix.
It, however, didn’t answer the question about who will be in the car come 2025. Perez believes Red Bull drivers have to deal with “worse” scrutiny than the rest of the grid. 👉 Perez v Ricciardo uncovered: The data behind Red Bull’s big driver decision 👉 David Coulthard’s worrying Sergio Perez ‘turned the page’ theory despite Red B.