Sergio Perez claims he’s not ‘distracted’ by rumors of not meeting Red Bull contract targets

Red Bull began the 2024 season with high hopes of recreating the success of last year. However, 12 races into the current campaign, the Milton Keynes-based squad seems to be under major threat. On the other hand, Sergio Perez has been trundling at the rear of the grid and has scored a mere 15 points in the last six races. This has led to rumors regarding his future circulating within the paddock, whom the Mexican has dismissed as non distracting.

Sergio Perez appeared as a messiah for all the second driver troubles at Red Bull when he joined the team in 2021. He acted as a rear gunner and was always present at the sharp end to collect the pieces whenever Max Verstappen had a bad day. However, this changed in 2023 as his pace started to drop tremendously. This continued into 2024 and questions regarding his future at the team began sprawling up.

Despite his underwhelming results, the Mexican has asserted that he will endure his tenure at Milton Keynes.

I know where I am in terms of my contract and that sort of thing. I cannot let it be a distraction. I need to focus on the next two weekends, which are the priority together with the team to get out of this difficult period.

Sergio Perez via RacingNews365

Perez admitted that he knows the intricacies of the contract. He then further stated that he cannot let speculations regarding him take over him as he focuses on maximizing the next two weekends before the summer break.

Could Sergio Perez’s deficit be down to having a different spec floor in Silverstone?

While the 34-year-old has been having subpar performances, experts have pointed out that Red Bull was running two different specifications of the floor at Silverstone. The team had two floors available for the weekend, but they still chose to save them for the Dutchman in case one got damaged(which got damaged during qualifying).

Helmut Marko revealed the extent of the upgrade on the RB20.

We brought an update, which added up to six points. And that made up about half a tenth.

Helmut Marko said in an interview with Sky Deutschland

The Austrian claimed that the upgraded floor added about six points of downforce, which could be interpreted as about half a tenth of performance. However, Perez was way off the mark and had beached his car in qualifying and had a terrible strategy in the race, which would have made no difference in the result even if he had gotten the upgrade.

Thus, Perez has a target on his back and would dearly want to showcase his talent in the upcoming rounds. Else, the Austrian giant could make a bold decision to sack him in favor of other drivers.

In case you missed it:

• Carlos Sainz blames Ferrari’s Imola spec revert for losing ‘months of development’
• Christian Horner claims Red Bull ‘baffled’ by McLaren’s call to put Lando Norris on softs at British GP

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