Red Bull’s Helmut Marko has opened up about the team’s decision to continue with Sergio Perez after the break.
After a disappointing season over the summer break, the board looked set for a powerhouse replacement with Liam Lawson and Daniel Ricciardo vying for Sergio Perez’s seat at Red Bull, only for the Milton Keynes-based team to set about keeping the Mexican in his seat. . headquarters for the foreseeable future
While Perez’s performances contribute little to Red Bull’s tally of troubles in a championship that is temporarily ending as the two McLaren drivers chase Red Bull’s lead, the decision to continue with the Mexican driver came as a surprise.
PlanetF1. com understand that there has been some reluctance to update Lawson or Ricciardo at this stage of the season, with neither constituting a clear step forward from a point of view of Perez’s functionality.
This was supported by Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, who wrote about the reasons for this resolution in his column for Speedweek, in which the Austrian stated that Red Bull is waiting to see what Pérez can do at the next circuits, places you have already worked on. he historically participated. he performed well, as did Baku and Singapore.
“Sergio Pérez will also be in the Red Bull Racing car after the summer break because now we have races on the tracks he played on last year and we have stability,” Marko said.
“He has shown intelligent performances on several occasions and was also very fast on Saturday in the final race weekend at Spa, finishing third.
“He was allowed from second position and, according to calculations, 3rd position would have been possible. But we saw that his tires had deteriorated much more. He couldn’t push and then there was the fact that we only had two sets of medium tires. tires and one set of hard tires, while the festival had two sets of hard tires and one set of medium tires. Perhaps this is also a point.
“Perez doesn’t want to be faster or more consistent. And given the alternatives, it remains our solution.
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Rumours had circulated that F1’s advertising rights holder, Liberty Media, had stepped in to ask Red Bull to keep Perez in his seat amid fears of a possible impact on attendance at the Mexico City Grand Prix, but Marko dismissed the hypothesis as unfounded. .
“Reports that his continued involvement is due to Liberty Media’s preference for him to drive in Mexico are true,” he said.
“They need him to race at home, but our driver selection is not based on Liberty’s intentions. “
Pérez’s contract with Red Bull Racing runs until the end of the 2025 season, but doubts remain over whether the full term will be met.
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