Sergio Perez ‘conversation’ teased with Red Bull tipped to make ‘hard’ F1 2025 driver decision

Red Bull will need to make “the hard decision” over Sergio Perez, with Jenson Button baffled that they haven’t acted yet given he could cost the team the F1 2204 Constructors’ Championship.

Perez once again failed to join his team-mate Max Verstappen on the podium at the United States Grand Prix, Verstappen bringing in 23 points while Perez managed just six.

Will Sergio Perez still be a Red Bull driver in F1 2025?

Verstappen capitalised on Red Bull’s upgraded RB20 to win the sprint before finishing behind the Ferrari team-mates in the grand prix.

Perez was pointless on the Saturday, where he lost out to the Haas drivers, before finishing the race in seventh place and 40 seconds adrift of Verstappen.

The only driver from the top four teams without a single victory on the board, Perez has also not been on the podium since April’s Chinese Grand Prix and sits on just 150 points.

That puts him a massive 204 behind championship leader Verstappen and it is hurting Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings where they’re at risk of losing second place to Ferrari.

Despite all that Perez survived what was widely expected to be a summer sacking when Red Bull the call to continue with the driver for the remainder of the season.

Button, though, cannot see how they can continue with him into F1 2025 given his current form.

“Last year if he was half a second off Max, he was fine,” the 2009 World Champion told Sky F1. “The car was so quick it would still be on the podium. Now he’s P8.

“So it’s a big issue for the team and this could cost them the Constructors’ Championship, so they really do have to think about it.

“You look at VCARB, the drivers are in and out if they’re not performing, whereas it seems at Red Bull that’s not the case.

“But at some point, they’re going to have to make the hard decision.”

Sergio Perez’s deficit to Max Verstappen laid bare

?F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

?The updated Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings after the United States Grand Prix

His fellow pundit Danica Patrick reckons even Perez may be ready for it to be over.

“I would imagine they’re starting to think about that, maybe even Checo is,” she said. “He can’t be having a blast out there and I’m sure he’s getting sick of defending himself.

“I think that especially being Red Bull, where we know that it’s the performance that’s most important. We know that Red Bull is extremely hard on their drivers for performance, but there’s also the business side, so you have to take all those things into account.

“But I would imagine that Sergio is probably willing to have some kind of conversation.”

She added: “Let me correct myself: I don’t know if Checo would be willing to have that conversation, that’s not how it goes. Usually, if a driver wants to that’s the end, but the team has got to be thinking about it.”

Perez though has made it clear he’s not thinking about quitting having used The Wolf of Wall Street clip about “I’m not leaving” in response to a rumour that he’ll announce his retirement at the Mexican Grand Prix.

But as confident as he may feel about that, Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko has once again cast doubt on Perez’s long-term future with Red Bull.

“Let’s see, but he has to improve his performance,” said the 81-year-old who in the same interview called Red Bull and VCARB hopeful Liam Lawson a “man for the future” after his points-scoring finish in Austin.

Lawson is the latest driver being auditioned by Red Bull with Button saying if cannot beat his VCARB team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in the six-race trial, maybe it is time for Red Bull to give Tsunoda a chance.

“It feels, at VCARB, they want [Lawson] to come in and be quicker than Tsunoda,” he said.

“But if they get through enough drivers that aren’t quicker than Tsunoda, maybe Tsunoda should be in the Red Bull seat.”

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