A defiant Sergio Perez insists he will see out his Formula 1 contract into next year at Red Bull, despite speculation he could be axed this summer.
The Mexican is coming off a run of poor results, with his team boss Christian Horner saying after the British Grand Prix that his non-points scoring form is “unsustainable” for the squad.
It is understood that if things do not improve over the next two races Red Bull could activate a performance-related clause in Perez’s contract and replace him for the second half of the year.
The team handed a filming day test to reserve driver Liam Lawson at Silverstone last week, with sources suggesting that the New Zealander showed he had the speed to step up to a race seat in the 2024 RB20 if required.
But despite the rumours about his future, Perez insisted ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix that it was business as usual and claimed that his recent comments highlighting the importance of the next two races were not linked to the possibility of him getting dropped if things did not change.
“Obviously, I cannot talk about my contract, but it's nothing related to that,” he said.
“What I said is that the next two races are very important for me.
“I want to go on holiday with a good spirit and I think it's good for the side of my garage to go on a good spirit. I wasn't talking about anything else.
“I'm fully focused to fully deliver and I will be here, and I will be here again next year, and that's nothing different. I'm just fully committed to myself.”
Perez is under no illusions, however, that he needs to start delivering more for Red Bull, having scored just 15 points in the last six races.
“I haven't been performing, first of all, at my 100%, with the circumstances of when you put yourself in difficult positions,” he explained.
“Obviously we take a lot of responsibility for that, but there has been a lot of circumstances as well, with different sorts of races.
“It's a little bit of everything when you are in this vicious circle. We had a really strong Friday, but then I messed up in Silverstone in qualifying, so that was down to me.
“Then with the strategy in Silverstone, we just throw the dice and see what happened. It didn't work for us.
“But I think the main thing is that I've been in this business for too long and I know that it will only matter where I finish in Abu Dhabi. So let's ride the rollercoaster and hopefully get back on form very soon.”
RB’s Yuki Tsunoda made clear in Hungary that he felt that if Perez was dropped that he fully deserved to replace him – and thought it would be “weird” if Lawson got the nod.
Perez said it was no surprise to hear others stake their claim to his seat.
“Well, I think a lot of drivers out there would love to have my seat,” he said. “It's obvious, you know.
“It's one of the top seats and it's normal for Yuki to want to move up. That's just part of the nature of the sport.
“I’ve got nothing against it, it's good to have high ambitions in the sport.”
