Szafnauer tips Perez to stay at Red Bull after Miami near-miss
It had been widely believed that Sergio Perez would leave Red Bull at the end of the current season, but recent developments within the team have led former Aston Martin and Alpine team principal Otmar Szafnauer to think otherwise.
Perez finished 2023 as runner-up to his team mate Max Verstappen, picking up two wins early in the season in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan. This year he's yet to win a race, but is nonetheless back in second in the standings.
However he did come close to disaster in the most recent race in Miami where a lunge down the inside into turn 1 on the first corner almost took out not just himself but race leaderVerstappen in a very close near-miss.
That could have been terminal to Perez' hopes of extending his stay at Red Bull, but as things turned out it might actually have done him some good, according to Szafnauer in the latest RacingNews365 podcast.
"He got away with it!" Szafnauer declared. "As it turned out, he didn't hit anyone. Thereafter he settled in and put in a solid performance, finishing fourth. It's where he started, decent points."
Szafnauer suggested that if Perez hadn't gone for the chance when he did then he would have been criticised for not throwing everything into his performance.
"He was fourth on the grid and probably the quickest way to go from fourth to third to second is at the start," he explained. "At the start, you can make up a couple of places, and a lot of drivers do.
"If you don't do that it's then overtaking, you have to set people up, it takes longer, you've got to wait for DRS, all sorts of things."
Szafnauer said that by showing he still had the passion and energy to go for the opportunities when they presented themselves, the Mexican had made a compelling case for the team to keep him on.
"I think he's doing a good job," he argued. "If I were making that decision, I would keep him. The combination seems to be working.
"I think Checo is a great number two to Max," Szafnauer added. "When he settles in he doesn't make many mistakes. He's second in the championship, and that's where you want him to be.
"He has really stepped it up, and is doing the job for Red Bull. Let's see how that continues in the future," he said, acknowledging that Perez "has got to perform to keep his drive" beyond the current campaign.
"Next year there will again be no big regulation change, so for me if that combination of drivers is working then I would keep it the same.
"I hear they've an upgrade coming for Imola, which is the next race," he continued. "It will be really interesting to see how their upgrade works, and how Max and Checo perform once they've put the upgrade on the car versus McLaren and the Ferraris."
Asked directly whether Perez would still be at Red Bull next year, Szafnauer had no doubt: "Yes, I think he will."
Perez' hopes of staying on may also have been helped by the recent series of shocks that have hit the team, from allegations about Christian Horner's conduct to the abrupt resignation of car design icon Adrian Newey.
Rumours continue to persist that Verstappen is considering his own future with the team, making it even more important for them to ensure stability in the other rae seat in 2025.
That might explain why Carlos Sainz has suddenly re-emerged as a leading contender for a move to Red Bull in the wake of the news that he is to replaced at Ferrari by Lewis Hamilton.
The announcement that his father Carlos Sainz Snr has signed with Ford for their 2025 Dakar programme led many to jump to the conclusion that Sainz Junior would also be par of the Ford family in F1 when the manufacturer joins up with Red Bull.
If Sainz were indeed to move to Red Bull in 2025, the big question in that scenario is whose seat he would be taking - that of Perez, or Verstappen?
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