Perez admits uncertainty revolving around his future at Red Bull

F1 Grand Prix, GP Abu Dhabi, Yas Marina Circuit

Following another disastrous race for the Mexican, Red Bull drivers Sergio Perez has admitted that his future at the Milton Keynes-based outfit is hanging in the balance.

Having struggled for pure pace in the majority of the qualifying sessions this year, Sergio Perez's future at Red Bull has been hanging in the balance for long months.

The Guadalajara-born driver joined Red Bull in 2021, and helped his team-mate Max Verstappen win his first championship title that year, playing a pivotal role at the title-deciding 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

However, he has failed to deliver a consistent performance over the last couple of years. Perez has won five races with Red Bull, and finished second in the Drivers' Championship last year, but he has endured periods during which he simply struggled for outright pace in qualifying.

After a strong start to the season, Red Bull elected to extend his contract by a further two years which would see Perez race for the Milton Keynes-based outfit until at least the end of the 2026 F1 season. However, the Mexican struggled for pace after his contract extension.

The Mexican finally put in a relatively strong performance in qualifying on Saturday to start from P10 on the grid, but he endured heartbreak again when Valtteri Bottas tagged the back of his RB20, with the incident sending him into a spin.

Reflecting on his unfortunate retirement, Perez noted: “It hasn’t been a great year and we wanted a better result today but in the end, it probably summed up the season. It was just very unfortunate to have a collision with Valtteri, I was turning into turn six and I got hit from the back.

"I think he brake too late but I had the feeling that the car was already damaged before that, I was upshifting and the gearbox was spinning, so I think there was potentially an engine issue prior. I ended up losing drive and couldn’t continue.

Although Perez had been confident that he would stay with Red Bull after this year to fulfil his contract extension, the Mexican has now admitted that the team will decide about his future "in the coming days".

"I am relived this season is over in a way, it has been a very frustrating and difficult year. I am just happy it is all over and I can look forward now.

"We will see what happens in the coming days, I don’t know what is going to happen at the moment, I have a contract and the Team and I have been talking. It’s a case of discussing what is the best for everybody moving forwards.”