Perez, The Elephant in the Room??

[Still Mulling]

Silly little vile baby. He'll fit right in.

[anonymous-user]

CT05 Nose Cone said:

So after a string of bad performances, Red Bull give him a contract extension with a performance criteria that he completely fails to meet, then keep him until the end of the season and give him a massive payout to leave. Great work all round.

Look how many chances they gave Ricciardo when it was clear his time in F1 was over. McLaren paid him a year's salary not to drive for them, yet Red Bull kept him on for another year and a half.

Yet in the past they have been utterly ruthless in either demoting or sacking drivers they thought were not up to it.

[Muzzer79]

CT05 Nose Cone said:

So after a string of bad performances, Red Bull give him a contract extension with a performance criteria that he completely fails to meet, then keep him until the end of the season and give him a massive payout to leave. Great work all round.

I doubt that it's quite as simplistic as that.

I think the rumour was that if Perez failed to get within a certain points tally of Verstappen, Red Bull had an option to remove him from the main team. However, that could mean that he would step down into VCARB, on the pretence that a VCARB driver would replace him.

But we don't know what the terms are of the contract he signed in June. Given the performances around that time, one would assume that RBR built more robust performance-related clauses in but it does seem an odd situation all around.

RBR, on the face of it, seem to be wanting to do the right thing by Perez and let him have a graceful exit without looking like he's being sacked for poor performance. But this kind of reasonable, fair and respectful behaviour is not very Red Bull-like...........

[entropy]

Muzzer79 said:

RBR, on the face of it, seem to be wanting to do the right thing by Perez and let him have a graceful exit without looking like he's being sacked for poor performance. But this kind of reasonable, fair and respectful behaviour is not very Red Bull-like...........

They promote then demote / ditch young drivers who arguably need nurturing yet give time to a veteran. All very odd. If RBR are quick out of the box 2026 then the team have somebody to thank for the extra development time...

[anonymous-user]

Perez did just what they wanted to come 3rd in the constructors and gain the extra wind tunnel time they needed for the '26 car. The new contract was a mechanism to ensure Perez got paid an extra big bung for pretending to try for 3/4 of a season and losing his job at the end of it.

If you know how Horner thinks it all seems as obvious as a hand shandy in a plane toilet.

[pits]

Forester1965 said:

Perez did just what they wanted to come 3rd in the constructors and gain the extra wind tunnel time they needed for the '26 car. The new contract was a mechanism to ensure Perez got paid an extra big bung for pretending to try for 3/4 of a season and losing his job at the end of it.

If you know how Horner thinks it all seems as obvious as a hand shandy in a plane toilet.

I very much believe this was part of the plan all along and I have said it before, it makes sense, they have lost Newey and other staff, new regs in 2026, it pays to have that wind tunnel time.

However I was just doing the maths on Perez this,
They say he created $4.8m worth of damage to the car (the most crashy this season)
He has a salary of $14m per year
If he has been bought out his contract that is rumoured at $15m
He has cost the team first in championship prize money $18m
All in the Perez bill for RB this year $52m.....Fifty two million dollars, Don't get me wrong I know he brought money in via sponsorship so it is nowhere near that, but on the face of it, that is $8m less than what Sauber walked away for finishing last.

[Another project]

If the rumours are true and Perez is getting paid off would that affect their 2025 budget with the cost cap?

[TheDeuce]

pits said:

Forester1965 said:

Perez did just what they wanted to come 3rd in the constructors and gain the extra wind tunnel time they needed for the '26 car. The new contract was a mechanism to ensure Perez got paid an extra big bung for pretending to try for 3/4 of a season and losing his job at the end of it.

If you know how Horner thinks it all seems as obvious as a hand shandy in a plane toilet.

I very much believe this was part of the plan all along and I have said it before, it makes sense, they have lost Newey and other staff, new regs in 2026, it pays to have that wind tunnel time.

However I was just doing the maths on Perez this,
They say he created $4.8m worth of damage to the car (the most crashy this season)
He has a salary of $14m per year
If he has been bought out his contract that is rumoured at $15m
He has cost the team first in championship prize money $18m
All in the Perez bill for RB this year $52m.....Fifty two million dollars, Don't get me wrong I know he brought money in via sponsorship so it is nowhere near that, but on the face of it, that is $8m less than what Sauber walked away for finishing last.

The team used to spend an extra £200m every year to maintain a competitive advantage. They can't do that anymore but they can game the development time allocation by flunking the WCC... It would be a cheaper way to gain an advantage than they used to do, even without Checo's supposedly immense sponsor money - which I suspect wipes out his 'cost'.

[TheDeuce]

Another project said:

If the rumours are true and Perez is getting paid off would that affect their 2025 budget with the cost cap?

Nope, outside the cap.

The ability to pay off and buy in drivers (and other talent) is another advantage the wealthier teams still have over the rest.

[Supersam83]

Another project said:

If the rumours are true and Perez is getting paid off would that affect their 2025 budget with the cost cap?

Driver salaries and pay offs are not part of the cost caps.

[Another project]

Supersam83 said:

Another project said:

If the rumours are true and Perez is getting paid off would that affect their 2025 budget with the cost cap?

Driver salaries and pay offs are not part of the cost caps.

I knew about the driver salaries being exempt but I didn't think the pay off would be

[Gloster_BCN]

If Yuki doesn't get promoted, I would love to see RB get Kmag on a one year contract to step in for Perez. That would give them a year to develop either Lawson in the Vcarb or find alternative talent.

Don't think it's going to happen, but for me it would make a lot of sense as an interim year. They don´t want Yuki and Lawson isn't ready to step up, so..

[vaud]

Another project said:

I knew about the driver salaries being exempt but I didn't think the pay off would be

A contract termination would be part of a salary, IIRC as it's all part of the driver contract?

[thegreenhell]

vaud said:

Another project said:

I knew about the driver salaries being exempt but I didn't think the pay off would be

A contract termination would be part of a salary, IIRC as it's all part of the driver contract?

It's covered from both directions in the financial regulations. Cost cap exclusions include all costs of consideration to the F1 driver, and all termination benefits of any employee.

[Supersam83]

Confirmed Perez is gone...

[thegreenhell]

Nice that he acknowledged the catering department in his leaving message. They don't get enough credit.

[deadslow]

thegreenhell said:

Nice that he acknowledged the catering department in his leaving message. They don't get enough credit.

proper fast food

[ajprice]

The truck full of tequila bribe didn't work then...

[CT05 Nose Cone]

I would like to extend my thanks to Checo, it was his efforts that saved us from another season of tedious Red Bull dominance and meant someone other than them or Mercedes won the WCC.

[Still Mulling]

"...countless podiums..."

It was 29 with Red Bull.

1st - 5
2nd - 14
3rd - 10