F1 Breaking News | Sergio Perez Signs For Red Bull

Former Racing Point driver and Grand Prix winner Sergio Perez has been confirmed as teammate to Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing next season, extending the popular Mexican drivers stay in Formula One.

Having over performed for a number of years with midfield teams, Sergio Perez has been granted his big break for next season, teaming up with Max Verstappen at Red Bull Racing as the Austrian outfit elect to replace the underwhelming Alex Albon for next year.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1339934780549455873

Perez has signed what is understood to be an initial one-year deal with the energy drinks outfit, with outgoing driver Alex Albon having been demoted to the position of reserve driver, with a view to returning to the squad in future seasons.

“Alex is a valued member of the team and we thought long and hard about this decision," said Christian Horner. "Having taken our time to evaluate all the relevant data and performances we have decided that Sergio is the right driver to partner Max for 2021 and look forward to welcoming him to Red Bull Racing"

"Alex remains an important part of our Team as Test and Reserve Driver with a key focus on 2022 development and we would like to thank him for his hard work and contribution.”

With the confirmation of Perez at Red Bull, no room in the 2021 driver market is available for Nico Hulkenberg, who continues his exile from the sport following the loss of his Renault seat at the end of 2019.

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[Paul Glover]

Great for Perez, but part of me feels for Albon. Be interesting to see if Perez can handle the heat in Redbull, been at Racing Point for some time now.

 

[eg01st]

Understandable decision, they raced Alex too hard...

 

[fatal4you]

Nooooooo, not Albon. He was a good guy.

 

[mopro]

Gasly trying hard not to grin reading this news.
It seems RedBull need inputs from veteran racer to push the team forward.

 

[The Zman]

Perez deserves the chance. Only decision Red Bull could have made. Go Checo!!!!!!

 

[Bram Hengeveld]

I think Perez will do great but I do feel for poor Albon. What does a contract actually mean in F1?

 

[THK84]

It'll be very interesting how Checo'll perform against Max.

I don't think he'll beat Max, but he'll definitely be closer than Alex & Pierre.

Along with Shumacher, Tsunoda and of course Mazepin (we'll need a driver to hate now Stroll is doing alright), Vettel to AM, Alonso to Alpine, it'll be a very interesting year and new cars and rules for the year after.

Also, plz let the Zandvoort GP be good

 

[BeliacosGR]

F"cking finally! I am very happy for Checo. Well deserved and i am sure he will show his full potential. For the side of Albon not so sure..he was a nice guys showed some promising things but when he needed to shine he wasn't there..although sometimes he was unlucky. We will see how it goes.

 

[THK84]

I do feel for poor Albon.

I do too. But to be fair, he had more chances than Gastly and wasn't really up to scratch in my humble opinion.

I also think his down demeaner isn't really helping (marketing wise) either. Not the energy you'd figure with a energy drink company.
Now Verstappen could 'use an energy drink' the way he sits at press conferences but he makes up for it on track.

What does a contract actually mean in F1?

Judging from the past, equally much nowadays.

 

[Michel Bélisle]

Nice! Logic prevailed. It must be a hard pill to swallow for Albon to recede in the background as the reserve driver. Ouch!

 

[Nano10]

Bien Checo, ahora vas a demostrar que le podés ganar a Max!!

 

[THK84]

Nice! Logic prevailed.

I read Nice! 'rapper' 'rapper'-ed

 

[TOONS12]

Weird how RB never came knocking all those seasons he was struggling in poor car....

Then comes the pink Merc and he's hot news....

To add, i always rated Perez. Never sure why he was banished to the lower teams in the first place. Had he of taken Bottas's seat in the black Merc he'd of had a hatful of wins by now.

 

[NDG]

Nothing against Perez, but I really like the new guys.. Not a fan of Albon but I really feel sad for him. I also felt sad for Gasly last year. Red Bull, I will never be a fan of them. Maybe the drivers but never the team. I don't know why.

Fully understood the decision though. For business and battle, Perez is not a bad choice for a scoring juggernaut. We'll see then how much he compares to Max.

EDIT: I think it will be very funny if the little Japanese rookie outperform Gasly and Perez gets demoted to Alpha Tauri to ride out the one year deal. Like Lewis said, it's hard being a teammate to top class drivers. Anyone mediocre will look like a complete tool.

 

[David Jessat]

I think Perez will do great but I do feel for poor Albon. What does a contract actually mean in F1?

Nothing, did it ever? Will be interesting how Checo manages #33

 

[Navigator]

Mod-edit: to quote your own words: "don't like it, don't read it"

 

[Ryan Soucy]

Meh. Aside from the best race of his life in Bahrain, I have not been impressed by Perez. He was outperformed by Ocon when they were together, and now Ocon got schooled by Ricciardo, I think that puts both those guys in the midfield. I wouldn't even be surprised if Perez finishes behind the McLaren duo.

 

[Nick Hill]

I think Perez will do great but I do feel for poor Albon. What does a contract actually mean in F1?

Well, I assume it means he gets a nice little buyout or some other kind of pre-agreed upon concession if the team decides to not follow through on their commitment. I know next to nothing about sport "over there", but over here in the US, in the "stick & ball" realm, it's very common for fans of a team to be well versed in the details of their team's coach/manager's buyout clause. It's especially common in college football and basketball, which at the top level are big money makers and so pay their coaches handsomely with long(ish) term contracts to assure potential recruits that the coach will be there for all 4-5 yrs of their university career...that is, until the school decides the coach is underperforming and ends up "buying out" the coach's contract early in the form of a massive cash payout per the stipulations of the contract.

It's all kind of goofy but, as a previous manager of mine told me, "everything is negotiable". When big money is on the line in a tightly competitive environment (such is the case with F1), a contract is really just a point-in-time artifact representative of the respective negotiating leverage of the two parties. Superficially, it looks like an agreement for the team to allow the driver to drive X number of years but, in reality, it's just as much (if not more) about the fine print (buyout clauses, etc).

As far as the Perez/Albon switcheroo goes, it's all very "F1", I think. I don't mean that in a good or bad sense...just a statement of fact. Max drubbed Albon pretty thoroughly. I'm not sure anyone (other than Albon's immediate family, perhaps!) was particularly surprised by that. I suspect Max would drub just about any teammate, short of maybe Lewis or Alonso. Albon seems like a genuinely nice guy and is probably an OK driver...but an "OK" driver in that seat is going to be treated to watching Max drive off into the distance race after race. That brings us to Perez. I think he deserves to be in an F1 seat one way or another, but my suspicion is he is "good, not great". A "good" driver in that seat is going to be treated to watching Max drive off into the distance at a marginally slower rate than the "OK" driver did.

So, good bye nice guy Albon - sorry it didn't work out...welcome back good-but-not-great Checo - glad to see your F1 dreams being extended for at least a little while...meanwhile, Max is still very fast...and Red Bull? Well, Red Bull are still wielding the impressive power and leverage of being the owners of two of the most coveted seats in all of motorsport and will continue to behave accordingly (subtext: don't get too comfy, Checo - definitely don't delete any of the IndyCar contacts you may have drummed up lately from your cell phone's address book).

 

[F_B]

Finally!
Will be interesting to see him perform against Verstappen. Bet he will loose in qualifying regularly but when it comes to races he will be there when it’s important. Good choice for the team.