Perez RESPONDS to Retirement Rumors!

Alright guys, welcome back to Formula 1 News, Sergio Perez's team has responded to the major rumours that emerged yesterday that he's due to announce his retirement from the sport at the Mexican Grand Prix in a couple of weeks' time. His team says, absolutely not, nothing of the sort, complete nonsense, but that's what they always say, and especially with reports emerging from AMUS that Perez recently requested to Red Bull to drive an earlier spec version of the car, pre-Barcelona, and they said absolutely not, Checo, we're not going to be doing that, shut up and drive the car, maybe it makes you think this is still on the cards. Thank you very much, and tweet your thoughts in the comments below, hit the like button if you enjoy, subscribe if you're new as always, I would greatly appreciate it. Firstly, as we said yesterday, big rumours that indeed the Belgian Grand Prix was going to get extended at least until 2025, that's now been officially confirmed as the case, so the Spa Grand Prix will stay on the calendar for now, and I've got to say, a little bit interesting for Red Bull, they tweet this out to celebrate the occasion, racing at the Belgian Grand Prix until 2025, their car works very well around there as well, sounds good, and a picture of, well Max on the left hand side and Danny Rick on the right, you've got to wonder if Admin thought, you know, maybe I'm cooking something a little bit here and garnered some impressions, maybe there's something to it, maybe there's not, I will say there is something of a correlation as far as I'm concerned between the length of these deals and how good the circuits actually are. The best tracks tend to have the shortest contracts, Silverstone, Suzuka, you know we've got Spa on here, Netherlands is okay, Monza, Interlagos, and then as you go further down you start to get to, you know, circuits that I don't consider to be as good, but they've got really long term deals, to be fair I think Canada's good and Hungary's good and I like Australia, Bahrain's okay, but I think there is maybe a negative correlation at play there to some degree, but still, hopefully these legendary circuits do remain for a long time to come. And on Lance Stroll, you guys might well have seen if you watched this weekend's, the frustrations from Stroll after qualifying after another disastrous weekend from him, pushing his trainer, there was some controversy, they cleared it up internally, Lance Stroll then kind of, he didn't really apologise to be fair to the press about this, he basically says, it's fine, we're like brothers, he doesn't mind, and maybe that's true, but still the FIA said actually Lance, you can't behave like this as a driver of, you know, a team under our domain as the governing body, there are certain rules in place that you can't break, and apparently his actions after qualifying breached into that territory and therefore he was considered under investigation, he's now apologised and has been issued with a written warning from the FIA compliance officer regarding his contact, the FIA maintains a zero tolerance stance against any misconduct and condemns any actions that may lead to physical harassment, so yeah, that's what he's been done for, it's a written warning, we get up and we move on. Now let's talk about some rumours, because we're going to discuss this Paris thing in a second, it emerged as a Reddit post, which has since been deleted, very interestingly, and there's kind of a quote that goes around in Formula 1, never believe a rumour until it's been officially denied, and to be honest, there were rumours a while ago that Hamilton was talking to Ferrari, and then I think Ferrari might have said, ah, you know, nah, there's nothing to this guy, we're definitely committed to Sainz and Leclerc and all this stuff, and then actually, Toto Wolff revealed yesterday that indeed, Hamilton had had a meeting with John Elkann, president of Ferrari, but he told Toto, I'm not going anywhere, but I'll take the meeting, I'll take the free dinner, and, you know, then Ferrari will try and lure him in, and this is, I'm sure, why the Carlos Sainz camp aren't so happy with the way things are going, with Leclerc being, you know, the golden boy of Vasseur, as he has been for a few years, so definitely interesting just to note that. Because rumours in Formula 1 are never too far around the corner, and they're always officially denied, that's just how it works, and there's countless times over the last few years that a rumour happens, the official party says no, the reality is slightly different. So if you guys didn't see yesterday's video, there was a post on Reddit here, with absolutely no sources or credibility, it simply said, trust me bro, but if we, you know, we went through it in some detail yesterday, and there's reason to believe this might be accurate to some extent. Now this post has since been deleted, but it's alleged that there was someone in the know with Perez's team that had been told and understood that his plan was to retire, Red Bull have told him to get out of the team, they're not going to extend him for one more year, so Perez is going to go, he's looked at his options, decided calling it a day in the sport is the best decision for him. Now since this emerged, of course, the media went to talk to Perez and his immediate team and say, is this happening, you know, what's good, what do you guys want to say? Now, of course, the answer is obvious, right, I mean, he's not going to say, oh, you got me guys, like, yeah, I am, I'm going to retire and, you know, of course, it would be a great, if he does do it, which he may or may not, but if he does do it in front of the Mexican crowd, let's say gets on the podium and then announces retirement, it'd be a great moment, you know, kind of go as a legend of the sport, especially in his country would be great. We don't want that to be spool ahead of time. And I do feel bad for Perez, because he is going to be bombarded with questions about this, come up the Austin Grand Prix and even in the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, I imagine, which isn't ideal, especially if this is true and he has to say, oh, no, I'm committed to my future, but then he actually does retire, I don't know. It's unfortunate for Perez, but nonetheless, nothing we can do about it. And his team said that's completely false, absolutely fabricated, nothing to this at all. And even his PR guy, basically his media and PR guy didn't tweet out denying it, but he tweeted out all these laughing emojis, effectively implying that I don't know where this guy's got it from. There's nothing behind this story, which, of course, is what he would say. Now, AMUS comment on this as well, and this, I thought, was a really interesting article because Red Bull officially denied these rumors. They say there's nothing to it. And now we're working with Perez to continue, and that might be the case, although I somewhat doubt it. But AMUS and very reputable sources give a couple of reasons why this might not be the case, but also a couple of reasons why it possibly could be. So a Red Bull spokesman immediately said there's absolutely nothing to it. And Helmut Marko says, I don't know anything about that. So, you know, it's hard to believe exactly what Helmut Marko says some of the time. It's, yeah, take it as you will. Now, they do mention that logic speaks against the rumor because Red Bull have confirmed the driver pairing for AlphaTauri. And to be fair, they did do this in Suzuka, right? Because it was like Arsenal, Honda, all that type of thing. Nice to do it there. And that was apparently the weekends where they told Perez that he's not going to stick around. So would they announce the AlphaTauri team if they're going to put Danny Rick in the main car anyway? Maybe not. But I don't really see why this, you know, speaks against the rumor, right? Because they can do that. And still, they can bring Ricciardo up to the main team or whoever they want to. It doesn't mean that, you know, just because they've done that now, they definitely can't axe Perez. They still definitely can. And I don't know. I feel like this is something they would do anyway. But yeah, I don't know. I'm not so sure that this announcement means that, oh, yeah, for sure Perez is staying. I'm not sure that quite checks out for me. But what I found very interesting here was this analysis on the Barcelona upgrade. So this has been the case the last couple of years. The car starts out the season kind of understeery. These cars are heavy. A lot of the cars will tend towards understeer. The Red Bull has a really strong front end and in fairness, even the Mercedes has developed a strong front end over since they're like Silverstone upgrade, really. It's the rear of the Mercedes that's an absolute nightmare for the drivers to deal with. But the Red Bull is very planted, even when the front end is very on a knife edge, which is how Verstappen likes it and is how the car can go the quickest. Adrian Newey and his team designed the car to be as fast as it can possibly go. And as it goes in that direction, it tends to go away from Perez's preferences. And at the start of the season, he was quite happy with it. And after some upgrades come through, they brought a new underbody in Barcelona. And apparently that has really affected his confidence negatively. The driving characteristics no longer suit my driving style. The moment came again where I had to think about how to drive the car in order to be fast. This also happened the last couple of years in a row. And it's no secret to Perez that if he stays around again, the car might start out next season slightly more favorable to him than it would otherwise. But as the season goes on, they're going to give Verstappen the characteristics he likes and Perez is going to get left behind again. Does he want that? I don't know if Perez wants that. And surely it's got to be very hard for Perez to believe after what's happened the last three years that, oh yeah, next year is going to be the year that I beat Max. I just don't know if he is going to believe that anymore. So then AMUS reveal that he actually requested to the team to drive the older spec version and said, look, can you guys give me the old floor, the old spec car as it was at the start of the year when I really liked it in, you know, let's say Jedder or let's say Baku where he had a really good weekend on both occasions. They've said no. And generally teams don't bring two different cars, right? They will bring the same spec, I guess, for reasons of like spares and stuff like that. It just makes sense. But still, that's quite the request. If Perez is talking to the team and saying, look, guys, can we please go back to the old version just for me? Max can do what he wants, but I want the older spec car because it suits me better. You know, like if you're getting to that point of requesting that, sounds like you kind of know that it's not going to work, like basically admitting you can't drive this car. The current one, you've got the way that you would like to. There's also rumours about how when he tries Max's setups, he just can't live with it at all. But if he goes for his own setups, which are slower, but he can handle more, then he actually has respectable weekends, but still nothing great. So it was discussed here that at, let's say Monza, he was still way off the step and in pace, but he used to set up that he could handle. So he didn't have a disaster race in Monza. It wasn't great. But he made progress, got P2 in the end, and OK, the car was a lot quicker than the Ferraris in Racetrim, but he did eventually get the job done and get to P2. So you know, maybe there's a feeling that Perez, if he just committed to his own setups and said, all right, whatever, Max is going to win every single race, but I will try and at least be more comfortable so he doesn't have to go for these ridiculous moves, taking people out of the race at the midfield to get through. I don't know. And it's obviously a mental thing in part for Perez, and that's very clear. And it was even discussed in the article as well that the team knows that it's not necessarily a skill issue. It's a mentality issue. But maybe it's one step too far, and it's rare for drivers at Red Bull to last four seasons anyway. Three is often a time that's a bit of an upper limit, and well, he is approaching the end of his third year. Now, MUS, in a very interesting twist of the tale, bring this to the table and they say, How about Sergio Perez gets replaced by Sebastian Vettel? And I mean, look, as I said a couple of days ago, give me Alonso in that car. It'll be fireworks. I'll be there for it. Vettel would be crazy. And yeah, I don't know exactly why they brought this to the table, because surely the chances of Vettel saying, you know what, actually, yeah, I will come back, have got to be less than like half a percent. Like, there's no way. Vettel, I know, has indicated that he does maybe want to come back at some point, but I can't imagine that it's going to be now. And coming back into the Red Bull to partner Max, I just don't know if that's a good idea for Vettel. After taking a year or so out of the Sportans, you know, as they do say, if Perez isn't there, it's going to be Danny Rick that gets the promotion, basically. So yeah, what do you guys think about that? I just thought that the idea that he's requested to drive a different version of the car, and he knows full well that next year it's not going to change, is it? It's not like their car design, it's not like it's a brand new set of regulations that may be suiting better. It's the same set of regulations. And next year's situation is going to be the same. It's the same as, you know, Ricciardo at McLaren. There's other examples of drivers that just can't handle the car on the knife edge like that. And it affects their confidence. They get bodied by their teammate, and they've just got to get out of that team if they want to actually, I mean, let's be honest, Ricciardo's stint at McLaren nearly ended his career. Could well have done. And Perez being in a position having lower skill ceiling, you could argue, then Ricciardo probably will end his career here. That is, well, after the Red Bull stint is over, his career will probably end. I think he will call it a day. Whether that's now or whether that's after one year, that, of course, is a question. And even we've got the other drivers getting asked about this, and they're piling the pressure on, right? Even Yuki Snowda says, I'd like to drive in the same car as Max. I don't know. Obviously, it's hard. He is very good. But at the same time, we never drive together. Obviously, it's different. So, you know, he's saying, I'd like to see how I could do against Max. Consistency is good. There's talks as well from, I think, Christian Ordo about Liam Lawson, that he definitely will get another drive at some point, which implies that, yeah, Perez at some point will go. There'll be a seat available. Lawson will be coming in. And it's on the mind of all of these guys. There's no doubt about it, especially Verstappen himself. Verstappen knows as well as anyone that, yes, he's just about winning these races. I mean, Qatar was close. I mean, he was only five seconds down the road from the McLarens that started way back in the fields. There were no safety cars. Now, I think, honestly, the McLarens were, they looked better maybe compared to the Red Bull than they were because of the lack of tyre degradation that was a factor. The Red Bull is really good on its tyres, and that is a big advantage in tyre dig it has over a normal stint. But over an 18-lap stint, the race pace advantage really wasn't there to quite the same extent. So maybe it flattered McLaren a little bit. But still, Max was looking in his mirrors thinking, damn, these guys actually aren't that far behind. My teammates nowhere to be found, and here I am winning the race, but getting outscored in the constructors over the last few races by these McLaren boys says that they're the strongest lineup of all the rivals, expect them to be a threat next year, and it's very much on Verstappen's mind that, well, I kind of need a bit of support here, I need a bit of a wingman. We can see even in this nice image, we've got the two Ferraris, the two McLarens, and obviously the two Mercedes were together, a little bit too close together this weekend during the Grand Prix itself. So, you know, then people have put together graphics like this. What would you do if you were in charge of Red Bull making these calls? But yeah, what's your perception? Perez's team has said no, absolutely false, nothing to it, but that often doesn't tell the full story of the matter. But I do feel bad for Checo here, just because he is going to get bombarded with these questions come the race in a couple of weeks' time, and he will have a difficult time answering them, I imagine, if these type of discussions are indeed on his mind, as they may well be. Just a couple of things to mention here before we finish off, I talked about Yuki Tsunoda a second ago, and indeed, Alfa Tauri are bringing a floor update to the Austin Grand Prix. They continue to try and make progress. I think that Lawson did an incredibly impressive job, no doubt, in that car. But also, I think he was helped by upgrades arriving at an opportune moment for him. And well, we believe that was his final Grand Prix weekend in Qatar, and Danny Rick will be back in the car here. So we'll see how Danny Rick can do, because Lawson's been very impressive, no doubt. But Ricciardo will hope to be very competitive again as well, given these new upgrades. So yeah, Alfa Tauri's upgrades have worked pretty effectively over the last few races. Maybe this will be one further example. And just a final thing on Andretti. We saw the other day that, well, actually yesterday we discussed it, that Andretti's deal with Renault for their engines has fallen through, or effectively the timing on it hasn't worked out. Now, Ferrari is potentially willing to make this happen in some respect. So that could be interesting. I don't think that it will go to court, this whole Andretti versus Formula One management thing. My belief is that they'll probably find a way to get them on the grid successfully. But who knows how much money is going to be involved, whether the teams will undisputedly shut that down. Even the likes of Williams are saying that, no, we don't want it because of financial stability. But maybe that argument is valid. But at the same time, I don't think we want this sport to turn into franchise league, effectively, because even I'm pretty sure some of the teams have talked about it in that manner, as if they kind of own a franchise spot in an American sport where there is no promotion, there is no relegation, there is no new entrance to the league. You simply own the spot and that's how it works. I don't think we want that in Formula One. We do want it to be possible for new teams to enter the sport. And well, if Andretti doesn't go through, given all that they've got in their favor, that will be a big L for the fans and frankly for the sport as well. So I think that they will make it happen. How exactly that happens, it's, well, the lawyers will be getting paid the big bucks to figure that out. So very much into your thoughts and all this stuff in the comment section below. I wanted to say thanks as well for the mega support on yesterday's video. And I'm changing around the face cam thing at the start of the end. I don't know if you guys like it, but I thought it was just a little bit interesting to mess around with. And yeah, massive support for the last few days. Really appreciate all the comments and the likes and the shares on the channel and all this stuff. So yeah, let's keep it rolling. Thanks for watching as always. Take care of yourselves. And I'll see you next time.