Red Bull is expected to offer Sergio Perez a new contract to keep the Mexican alongside Max Verstappen next season, according to Sky Sports pundit Ted Kravitz. A new deal for Perez will likely end Pierre Gasly’s chance to return to the team he was dropped from in 2019.
Kravitz made the call while explaining whether Lewis Hamilton could switch teams after Mercedes’ poor form continued in Imola. He said: “[Hamilton] isn’t going to drive alongside Max Verstappen clearly and it looks like they are going to keep Sergio Perez.”
The Mexican’s current deal runs until the end of this season after the team rewarded him with a one-year contract extension. However Gasly’s deal with the squad expires at the end of the 2023 campaign meaning he would then be free to sign for other teams.
Red Bull chief Helmut Marko has warned Red Bull would likely lose Gasly if they failed to promote him next season in a move he claims the team ‘don’t want’. His comments came after ex-driver Gerhard Berger claimed Gasly was now ‘good enough’ for another shot at the top team after a string of solid performances, including a win at Monza in 2020.
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Marko told Formel1.de: “Gerhard is right, but at the moment we still have a contract with Checo. We have to compare the performance of these two drivers, and with Checo we still have until the middle of the year.
“With Gasly we still have a contract until 2023, and it’s already clear that if this contract expires and we can’t offer him a chance to move up, we will most likely lose him, and we don’t want that.”
Perez only picked up one win last season but has starred so far in 2022 with pole position in Jeddah and securing the team a one-two finish in Imola yesterday. Red Bull has only given him one-year deals since he joined the team for 2021 but the Mexican has called for better terms next time around to ensure he has some ‘stability’.
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Ahead of the new season, Verstappen signed a bumper new contract to keep him at the team until 2028.
Perez said: “When the time comes, certainly as a driver, you really need to have some stability with your team, which is also good for the team to have some continuity. So I think going forward, I’m looking for a bit longer stay.”
