Max Verstappen is dominating team-mate Sergio Perez this season (Image: Getty)
Christian Horner has confirmed that Sergio Perez will drive for Red Bull alongside Max Verstappen next season. He also explained his reasoning behind the sacking of Nyck de Vries, claiming that the Dutchman was never going to be ready to drive for the Milton Keynes-based team.
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Perez’s status within the team has been a contentious topic throughout the 2023 season with the 33-year-old Mexican struggling to match the output of his two-time world champion team-mate.
Checo kicked off his year in style, winning races in Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan inside the opening four rounds to announce his presence as a title contender. Unfortunately for the Mexican, he has since witnessed a massive drop-off in performance level and heads into the summer break a whopping 125 points behind his team-mate.
“We have a contract,” Horner told Speedcafe when asked about Perez’s future with the team. “We’re happy with Checo and he will be our driver next year. But for us, it’s always good to have… the whole purpose of AlphaTauri and Toro Rosso before was to be training drivers as potential candidates for Red Bull Racing.
“That’s why, with Nyck [de Vries], it didn’t feel like he was going to be a Red Bull Racing candidate, so then the argument you put is, does it make sense to keep going?”
De Vries’ spell in the Red Bull set-up lasted a mere ten races with the Dutch driver ousted by Helmut Marko and Horner in favour of bringing Daniel Ricciardo back into F1 with AlphaTauri.
The 28-year-old was signed off the back of an immense stand-in performance for Williams last year but failed to replicate that form in the AT04. He regularly failed to beat team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in his ten-race AlphaTauri career before facing the axe after the British Grand Prix.
His dismissal could serve as a warning for Perez though. The Red Bull hierarchy acted ruthlessly quickly to dismiss De Vries, and a similar fate could meet the Guadalajara-born driver should he fail to improve after the summer break.
“I think ’25, it’s just good always to have options. I mean, Max is fixed till ’28. Checo’s contract runs the end of next year,” Horner continued.
“If Checo delivers, we’ll keep going with Checo. If he doesn’t, for whatever reason, that won’t be just restricted to AlphaTauri drivers. Because there’s an awful lot of drivers up and down the pit lane that would like to drive a Red Bull car.”
