Sergio Pérez has admitted that while he had other seat options at the end of the season, a contract extension at Red Bull Racing was his “plan A, B and C”.
The Mexican driver signed a two-year extension earlier this week – good news after a disastrous weekend in Monaco. After a lacklustre Quali performance, Pérez failed to make it through the first lap of the race after a nasty collision with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen.
Photo Credit: Red Bull Content Pool
Pérez has been at the centre of speculation since his early days with the Milton Keynes team, often failing to match the pace of his teammate Max Verstappen. The news of a contract extension received a mixed response, with some speculating that the extension was to ‘keep his teammate happy’ in the midst of rumoured unrest at Red Bull Racing HQ. However, Pérez was quick to shut the speculation down in the Drivers’ Press Conference today;
“At the end of the day, when my career is finished, it’s the only thing that will matter to me, what people have to say or not. I mean, I appreciate that everyone has their opinion. But at the end of the day, I’m here to do the best for my career, and I’m happy with what I have achieved.
I really want to finish my career here, wherever that is. It’s a team that has given me so much into my career that I’m just really happy. And yeah, I just want to give my best to this team to my last lap.”
Red Bull Racing have been under pressure in recent races – while they still lead both the Drivers’ Championship with Max Verstappen and the Constructors’ Championship, they haven’t managed to build the same momentum at the start of the season as they have last two. Ferrari are hot one their heels in the Constructors Championship, a mere 24 points behind heading into the Canadian Grand Prix weekend. In the Drivers’ Championship, Verstappen tops the table with 169 points, but Pérez currently sits in P5 with 107.
Both drivers have said they’re not happy with the car at the moment, and looking ahead to this weekend, Pérez hopes the work done in the last couple of weeks will earn them some points;
“I hope it’s not as severe as it was in Monaco, with our ride issues that we had there. We’ve done some work, some analysis, and I think it’s great to have straight away sort of a similar challenge to Monaco in many aspects
“Th“re are some great teams making a lot of progress and we’ve got to do the same. I think it’s always great to be part of a set of regulations with a team, you know, when you’re changing regulations and you’re part of that team. You’re already working on that, giving some ideas here and there, and it’s something really quite nice to have, to be able to be part of that. So, it will be an interesting one, but I do expect us to be a little bit stronger. I don’t think it will be our strongest track, but I really hope that we can be fighting up there.”
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Looking Ahead
Reflecting on his career with Red Bull Racing, Pérez expressed just how intense driving for the Milton Keynes is, and how he’s now looking ahead to making up some lost ground;
“Red Bull, it’s a team that really takes everything out of you. It’s something that since I came here, the amount of how intense everything is on track, off track. And it’s a challenge that you don’t have anywhere else. I haven’t had such a challenge in my career. So when I sign, I’m really up for it and willing to give my 100%.
Obviously, I’ve been in the team for a few years already. So it’s always, I think, when you are already there, it’s a lot easier to reach an agreement. I mean, you’re always talking to two different teams. There were other options out there. But for me, my plan A, B and C was definitely to stay at Red Bull.”
“It’s the third year of the same regulations. It’s natural that teams are coming closer to us. We’re finding it harder as well to find performance. But yeah, we know where our biggest chunk of performance is going to come from. I don’t think we have unlocked that much during the year, compared to other teams. So hopefully once we are able to unlock some of that performance, we can be in a better shape, especially in different type of circuits.
But yeah, the competition is super, super high. And I think this weekend, there are three or four teams that can potentially get the victory. So I think it’s great to have this competition.”
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