Sergio Perez delivered 2,000 bottles of Patron El Alto tequila to Red Bull staff at the Red Bull factory as a Christmas gift to his team. The Mexican is currently facing a nervous wait after a meeting with shareholders about his future, which took place after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Perez’s 2024 campaign was nothing short of a disaster. After recording four podium finishes in his first five starts, the RB20’s performance dropped off, and the Mexican’s displays nosedived.
From that point onwards, Perez did not return to the podium, and he ended the campaign with just one top-nine finish in his last eight Grands Prix. Such a gulf in performance to team-mate Max Verstappen cost Red Bull two places in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
Perez now hopes his tequila delivery will soften the blow for Red Bull engineers, many of whom missed out on bonuses tied to the team’s Constructors’ Championship finish.
Red Bull’s leadership met with shareholders immediately after the season finale in Abu Dhabi to discuss Perez’s future with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda both waiting in the wings to replace the 34-year-old.
However, Perez signed a new deal earlier this year, and while reports from the paddock have suggested that Red Bull are leaning towards parting ways with the six-time Grand Prix winner, if he doesn’t play ball, then things could quickly turn ugly.
After the Abu Dhabi GP, team principal Christian Horner was giving nothing away. He said: « Anything regarding the drivers, we have drivers under contract, and we have drivers with options that remain between the company and the drivers involved. And there’s nothing to say on that. But if there was something to say, I’d tell you.
« I mean, obviously, a single point from Checo. It was a good drive from him, a good recovery. But the problem is, we’re starting out of position on the day that McLaren were weak. We would have liked to have taken more points out of them today.”
According to team-mate Verstappen, Perez’s treatment has been somewhat unfair. “I work with him every weekend, week in, week out,” he said. “I find people have been very harsh on him.
“Of course, some weekends maybe could have been better, but sometimes people have been very harsh on him because he’s not an idiot. He’s always been regarded as a great driver and it’s been tough, but it’s been tough for everyone in the team because sometimes it was just very difficult to drive. »
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