Fans Expose Christian Horner’s Blunder as Sergio Perez Rumored to Profit $16 Million From Red Bull Exit

Apart from Max Verstappen’s historic fourth Formula 1 championship, Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull Racing emerged as a big talking point from the 2024 season. Although Verstappen’s title retention was seen as a huge success, they lost out on the constructor’s championship. And, Perez’s woeful run was more or less the reason behind the team’s shortcomings.

Well, it was evident that Verstappen needed a strong teammate, someone the team could rely on. While Sergio Perez had signed a new deal mid-season, he wasn’t out in the clear and was in the firing line given his torrid outing on the racetrack. Red Bull chief, Marko Helmut, had previously indicated that Perez’s future in the team would be decided after the Abu Dhabi race. And going by the latest development, they are now in a sticky situation as Checo demands to be paid in full to vacate his seat for his replacement.

Now, it is hard to find out the true release clause or the financials embedded in the driver’s contract. But if we are to go by Nico Rosberg’s words, Red Bull Racing might have to cough up $16 million to settle their business with the Mexican driver. “And we’ve heard rumors it’s around 16 million there at play. He wants his money at least, so he’s not going to go away that easily. And I think there’s a bit of lawyer discussions going on at the moment.” The 2016 World Champion said this on Sky F1.

The 16 million amount may sound like a big amount, but it’s not unheard of in F1. It was a former Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo, who received a hefty $18 million fee to cut his contract with McLaren short back in 2022. Similar to Sergio Perez’s position now, Ricciardo had a string of poor performances in 2022. McLaren managed to save some money by cutting him loose since he was due to receive a salary increase in the following year. For Red Bull, going by Perez’s 2024, switching drivers may limit spending on crashes, especially after the Mexican’s incidents put a dent of $5 million this year, not to mention the points and prize money Red Bull lost for not finishing higher in the Constructors race.

Helmut Marko had his reservations about Perez before he signed the deal. He didn’t shy away from justifying his stance as the season was about to be done and pinned the blame on Checo for the loss of the constructor’s title. “We have to have two drivers who finish in the points. Max is more than 200 points ahead of Sergio. For our employees, it is a disappointment because they will not receive their bonuses, as those depend on our position in the Constructor’s Championship.”

There seems to be a clash of ideas within the Red Bull Racing camp, and given how the situation has now turned sour, all fingers are now pointing at team principal Christian Horner. Fans on social media didn’t hesitate to hold him accountable for the current situation, which they could’ve avoided in the first place.

Internal division at Red Bull Racing allowed Perez to capitalize on his contract situation

The off-track drama at Red Bull Racing after the passing of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz was well documented. This was all part of the power struggle, and there have been instances where Hemlut and Horner have seen eye-to-eye. Now that Checo is trying to leverage this situation, this fan couldn’t help but highlight the cause of this friction within the team. “Don’t forget open civil war between both Horner and Marko and the Thai and Austrian owners behind them.”

There were clear signs that Perez wasn’t able to hit his strides in terms of performance on the racetrack. While he was solid for the first six races, after the Miami Grand Prix, he’s been on a downward trajectory. 8 points and a 6th place finish was his best until the end of the season, and despite these clear signs, he managed to get himself an extension until 2026. Well, this does raise questions about why a championship side like Red Bull wasn’t able to see through the potential risks of being about the situation that they are in right now. “How can a team like Red Bull fumble this bad with a contract man…,” a fan added.

Perez was handed the new contract in June at a time when his performances weren’t detrimental to the team. However, this was a gamble that Horner took to allow Perez to focus on his racing rather than his situation. Well, this move has certainly backfired, given that Red Bull is now on the hunt for a new driver to partner with Verstappen for 2025. Taking a jibe at Horner’s comments, a Reddit user wrote, “Lets give this guy 16 million and a 2 year as, ya know? A mental moral boosts of sorts. Really get the motivation going. Dangle the carrot, so to speak. Worst case we drop him. How could this go bad?” – Surely Christian Horner sometime last summer.”

Even the Red Bull fans seemed to have had enough of this drama and painted Horner as the villain of the current circumstances. He acknowledged that his bet didn’t work on Perez. “In order to settle his mind and extend that run of form for the rest of the season, we elected to go early, which obviously didn’t work.” Usually, team principals are shrewd operators and are always on the hunt for new talent that could add value to their teams. Therefore, this special treatment by Horner certainly is being questioned by the fans. “No one forced Horner to give him a new contract. What did he expect?”

Contract negotiations can go either way, but this fan predicts that both parties will eventually settle. Not because Red Bull doesn’t want to pay off their driver, but the loss they incurred in failing to win the Constructors title. “I think they will reach an agreement, Red Bull lost the constructors and $17 Million worth of price money with it because of Perez, don’t think he will get the full amount but they will reach an agreement for sure.. can’t imagine Red Bull going into 2025 willing to get P3 or even P4 in the constructors…” The only silver lining out of this situation is that Red Bull get more wind-tunnel testing time for their car because of their lower rank.

For the time being, everything we hear and listen to is nothing more than a speculation and an educated guess. Only an official confirmation from either Red Bull or Perez will put an end to this saga.