Sergio Perez shrugged off savage ‘Max Verstappen clause’ to seal new Red Bull contract
F1 driver Sergio Perez has penned an extension with Red Bull despite a reported ‘Max Verstappen clause’ in his contract that emerged last season.
Sergio Perez has overcome a ‘Mas Verstappen’ clause to pen new Red Bull terms (Image: Getty)
Not even a ‘Max Verstappen clause’ threatening to slash his wages was enough to prevent Sergio Perez from signing a new contract at Red Bull. The Formula 1 star has hitched his wagon to the Milton Keynes mammoth until at least 2026 after plenty of speculation over his future.
That’s despite the reports of a stipulation in his last deal that supposedly gave Red Bull the power to review his salary if he failed to keep up with Verstappen. Dutch daily De Telegraaf reported during the 2023 season that Perez’s previous contract was worth £8million per year, but he was at risk of losing a significant chunk of that if he fell 125 or more points behind his team-mate.
That was indeed the case as Perez, 34, ended the campaign in second and 290 points below Verstappen, who broke his own record as he amassed a monstrous total of 575. If the clause was indeed part of his contract, it’s unknown specifically how much the former would have lost – or whether his employers did trigger the said clause – but he’ll hope to keep things more competitive going forward.
Perez saw his first retirement of 2024 at the Monaco Grand Prix (Image: Getty)
So far this season, Perez is currently 62 points off Verstappen’s pace, albeit sat fifth in the drivers’ standings approaching the midway point. It helps that the rest of the field has posed more of a challenge, with McLaren emerging as more of a threat while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc is just 31 points away from the summit.
Perez has now agreed to a new two-year deal with the Red Bull, just as his previous deal was set to expire at the end of 2024. Upon announcing his extension on Tuesday (June 4), he said he was “delighted” to be tied to the constructor, adding he felt they had “a lot more championships to win together”.
Speaking around the time the revelation regarding his last contract came to light, Perez conceded his performances needed to improve. That’s despite Red Bull’s cars looking generally far superior to the rest of the grid for some years now.