Sergio Pérez concluded his disappointing 2024 season with unfortunate news. The Mexican driver was informed in mid-December that he would lose his Red Bull seat next season. However, Pérez has barely been out of Formula 1 for a month, and questions are already being asked about whether the driver can ever return. Helmut Marko offers the driver a glimmer of hope.
Pérez finished eighth in the drivers’ championship in 2024, 285 points behind teammate and champion Max Verstappen. It was merely the straw that broke the camel’s back, after a season filled with lows for the Mexican. At the beginning of the year, when he still secured four podium finishes, the Guadalajara native did not see this coming.
“He kept hoping to regain his old form,” reveals Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko, to Sport.de. “He won five Grands Prix with us and finished second in the world championship last year.” Pérez fell into a slump after his last podium in China, and subsequently failed to regain his old form.
New Opportunities
“It was then that he finally realized that a revival in this setting was not possible for him and that parting ways would be best,” continues Marko, who immediately gives Pérez a bit of hope. “There are still all sorts of possibilities for him in the future. I think he still hopes for Formula 1, although all the seats for next year have of course already been allocated. But if he stays on the sidelines for a year, then of course, as an experienced driver, there can always be new opportunities for him.
