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Recent reports have emerged claiming that many Red Bull senior engineers were angry at Sergio Perez's dip in performance after the British GP. These rumors surfaced after Perez's departure from the Austrian team was announced.
The 34-year-old has had a difficult season so far in 2024. He started the year on the front foot, bagging podiums and finishing close to his teammate, Max Verstappen. After the Monaco GP, however, he tumbled down the pecking order and was no longer able to score decent points and he did not stand on the podium again after the Chinese GP.
Reports from ESPN claim that many senior engineers at the Milton Keynes-based team were furious with Checo's performance at British GP qualifying and vented to Christian Horner about it. Another shocking claim from the report was that Red Bull regretted their decision to extend the Mexican's contract after seeing his poor performance.
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Throughout the season, there were several rumors that claimed Sergio Perez could be replaced by Red Bull's other drivers like Daniel Ricciardo, Liam Lawson, or Yuki Tsunoda. Since Checo's performances were glaring, rumors emerged that he could be replaced mid-season itself. However, Checo continued to stick with the team.
After the Abu Dhabi GP, Red Bull seniors stated that they would discuss Perez's future with the team in meetings and come up with a decision. On Wednesday, December 18, 2024, Red Bull officially announced that Checo would leave their roster.
Christian Horner talks about Sergio Perez's departure from Red Bull
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently talked about Sergio Perez's departure from his team. Speaking to ESPN, Horner explained that Checo's exit was due to multiple reasons. He explained how the F1 driver experienced a dip in performance after the Monaco GP. Red Bull honcho added that the decision to leave the team was his own and opined that a sabbatical from F1 could help Checo.
"It's been a culmination of things. Checo started the season so strongly, four podiums out of five races. It felt like he'd taken off where he'd left off last year. But then really from Monte Carlo, that race onwards, it's been a very tough year for him, and we've tried everything with him and supporting him and basically he's come to his own conclusion that I think that now is the right time to step away from Formula 1 to take a bit of time out," Horner said.
The 2024 F1 season was Sergio Perez's worst year at Red Bull as he finished the campaign with only 152 points, being eighth in the drivers' standings. On the constructors' side of things, Red Bull were not able to defend the championship and lost it to McLaren by just 14 points.
