Perez Reportedly Offered 1-Year Deal From Red Bull But He Wants More

Wednesday, 22 May 2024 at 10:05

Mexican media report Sergio Perez has been offered a one-year contract extension by the Red Bull Racing team, but he's aiming for more.

Sergio Perez has been with Red Bull since the start of the 2021 season. The Mexican driver has played a crucial part in the team's success, mainly in that season.

However, the performance gap between him and his teammate, Max Verstappen, started growing over the last two seasons.

As teams like McLaren and Ferrari are getting closer to Red Bull, the Austrian squad needs the 34-year-old to raise his game to protect the Constructors' title.

This means the Mexican driver should ideally consistently finish in P2, which wasn't the case in 2023. Out of 19 races that Verstappen won, Perez finished in P2 only four times.

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Consequently, Red Bull wanted to see clear progress from Checo coming into the 2024 season. So far, Verstappen has won five races, in three of which Perez scored P2.

Perez's worst result came during the most recent Emilia Romagna Grand Prix when Verstappen finished in P1, but the Mexican driver could not do better than P8.

According to Fox Sports Mexico, the 34-year-old's performance so far has been enough to convince Red Bull to offer him a one-year contract extension.

However, Perez apparently isn't satisfied with only a one-year deal and asked for more, to which the team from Milton Keynes reportedly said no very quickly, Fox Sports journalist Chacho López told FOX Sports Radio:

"The team already has the contract; it's for one year. They offered it to Checo, and he said, 'Hmm, we need to review it.'... Checo's lawyers are in that process, but Checo submitted a counteroffer for two years, which Red Bull immediately rejected."

Red Bull's motorsport advisor Helmut Marko previously told OE24 that offering Perez a two-year deal is risky as he feared the Mexican driver would then slack off. The team principal, Christian Horner, told the media during the most recent race weekend at Imola Circuit:

"The whole driver market is playing itself out and we know exactly where we are at and what our options are. In the timing that's right for us,we'lll make decisions about the future."