Sergio Perez issues crucial Red Bull future update as F1 ‘silly season’ gathers pace

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez arrives for the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez says he expects to know his immediate F1 future within the next couple of weeks, as the driver market has fired up early.

The Mexican driver is one of the most high-profile drivers left without a confirmed seat on the grid for the 2025 F1 season, with his current Red Bull deal coming to an end.

Sergio Perez: Everything is moving quite fast

Despite it only being April, various big moves and fresh contracts have already been confirmed since the start of the year – with Lewis Hamilton’s sensational switch from Mercedes to Ferrari the main headline on the driver market.

This has left a vacant seat at Mercedes while, at Aston Martin, their 2025 driver line-up was confirmed in the week before the Chinese Grand Prix as the team confirmed Fernando Alonso has signed a new deal to stay on alongside Lance Stroll.

With Red Bull yet to confirm who will be alongside the already-contracted Max Verstappen next season, Perez’s strong start to 2024 has delivered the exact sort of results the Milton Keynes-based squad needs him to be producing.

With his position looking far more secure than it did even two months ago, Perez said he’s confident of having a new deal – whether with Red Bull or elsewhere – confirmed over the coming weeks.

“I think, certainly, things are moving along earlier than I’d like to,” Perez told media in Shanghai ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix.

“I think, given how the whole market is, we’re going to be making decisions all fairly quickly. In the coming weeks, I expect to know my future.

“Everything is moving quite fast. So I think it’s important not to wait for too long.”

Perez endured a nightmare weekend at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix – the nadir of his season – with his weekend at Suzuka last time out seeing him coming home a very confident second place to Verstappen.

Having righted the wrongs of last season at a track where he struggled so much last year, Perez is confident he can continue to display stronger drivers this season as Suzuka is a good all-round circuit.

“I think Japan gave me a lot of confidence,” he said.

“Japan was the circuit where I struggled the most in that sort of circuit with a lot of high-speed corners, long-duration corners, and medium-speed corners. Ones where we were worse and we were doing things with the car to compensate for that weakness and we simply made it worse.

“So, being back in Japan after just a few months, it really boosted my confidence levels high and I think, if I am able to have that sort of performance in Japan and at a circuit that is very complete, I think we can be strong anywhere.”

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Sergio Perez: 100 percent I will be on the grid in 2024

Given the possibility of him failing to secure a Red Bull extension, and the even more remote possibility of not securing a seat elsewhere, Perez said he’s fully confident of being on the grid next season.

“Absolutely 100 percent, I’m fully committed,” he said.

“At the end of the day, I’ve been a long time in this sport, but I’m only 34. And when you see all the drivers carrying on, we see these days [much] longer careers.

“I’m still very fresh and very motivated. I have no doubt that 100 percent I will be here [in F1] next year.”

Perez also said that he believes his conversations with Red Bull will be reasonably straightforward as they thrash out a potential future together.

“It’s all about the future, how we both see the future together,” he said.

“If you, as a team and the driver, have the same targets in mind – that same common target –  it’s all very easy, especially after so many years, we’ve been together for four years.

“So I do expect that everything will be quite easy going forward.

“The priority is to remain here for the future. Something that I think it’s just a matter of time. The most important for now is to perform on track and focus on the season.”