After being out-qualified by one of the Mercedes in Spain 10 days ago, Sergio Perez complained he’d missed out on useful running because reserve driver Juri Vips had taken over his car during first practice.
But he no longer has to worry about any of Red Bull’s young hopefuls taking over his drive in the medium term. The team confirmed today Perez will remain with them until at least the end of 2024.
This had been an open secret since Sunday, when following his victory in the Monaco Grand Prix Perez greeted team principal Christian Horner with the words: “I probably signed too early.”
The vote of confidence in Perez is huge and entirely deserved. It took a while for him to get to grips with his first Red Bull, the RB17B, which was moulded to meet Max Verstappen’s requirements long before Perez arrived.
But he got to grips with it and delivered excellent results in the latter stages of the campaign which helped Verstappen seal the drivers’ championship. Not only his celebrated defence against Lewis Hamilton in the Abu Dhabi decider, but his spirited tussle with the seven-times champion in Turkey.
This year’s car was drawn on a blank piece of paper and Perez has been a closer match for his team mate. In Saudi Arabia he even took a surprise pole position – the first of his career after well over 200 attempts – and was robbed of a potential win by the timing of the Safety Car.
He could have won in Spain, too, after Verstappen pitched his car into a gravel trap early in proceedings. Perez took a diplomatic line as Red Bull twice ordered him to wave Verstappen by and, despite having told him he would be repaid for his obedience, refused to let him by his team mate as Perez lost time behind him mid-race.
Publicly, Perez was firm but gracious in his objections, telling his team the tactics were “very unfair” but handling the matter behind closed doors.
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