Sergio Perez's popularity in America and $17M worth of sponsorship prevent Red Bull from dropping him: Reports

F1 pundit Joe Saward claimed that Red Bull's resistance to drop Sergio Perez might have to do with the Mexican driver's popularity in America. The 34-year-old has been struggling to match the performances and results of his teammate Max Verstappen ever since the Miami GP and has lagged in the second half of the season.

There were reports ahead of the summer break that he might get replaced by Daniel Ricciardo or Liam Lawson for the second half of the season. However, he kept his seat as the Red Bull hierarchy trusted him to pick up his performances.

In his blog, Green Notebook, Saward reported about the $17 million worth of sponsorship allegedly being a possible reason for Red Bull to keep Perez. He wrote:

"The team decided to keep Sergio just before the summer break, by made it clear that he must do better. He has not done so. Dropping him is still an option, but he is hugely popular in the Americas, where a lot of Red Bull is drunk and sponsorship worth $17 million is at Red Bull because of him."

Saward also hinted that the Austrian team might 'bench' Sergio Perez around the Mexican GP time if he failed to pick his results up. He added:

"Red Bull bosses say (quietly) that they will bench him if he does not get better, but if that is the case the Austrian drinks company should order some suits of armor for Christian Horner and Helmut Marko for when they visit Mexico City (and an armored personnel carrier to get them in and out of the circuit). "

Former F1 world champion gives his take on Sergio Perez

Former two-time world champion Mika Hakkinen stated that Sergio Perez had failed to deliver for the reigning world champions, Red Bull.

As per GPBlog, the Finn said:

"Sergio Perez has not been able the deliver this for the Red Bull team. And it has been influencing the success. This has been a very negative thing. He has been there a long time. He had the chance to study himself, to understand himself, what does he need to be the number one. And he has failed to do that."

The Mexican driver has finished P6 and P8 in the two races after the summer break, in Zandvoort and Monza, and his results have largely been masked by Max Verstappen's issues in the RB20.

The six-time race winner remains P7 in the Driver's Championship with 143 points, with eight races and three Sprints remaining in the 2024 season. He is the only driver from the top four teams to not register a race win this year with P2 in Suzuka, Bahrain, and Jeddah being his best results.