Formula 1 News: Perez hits back at latest F1 retirement rumors (2nd Update)

The latest fake rumor held that Red Bull driver Sergio Perez was set to announce his retirement at the Mexico City Grand Prix, his home race.

However, the Red Bull driver took to social media on Sunday to push back on that report, shoving back in the face of the reporter who said it:

Sorry 😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/rPIHpYDVGH

— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) September 29, 2024

Rumors continue to swirl that Red Bull Mexican F1 driver Sergio Perez will announce his retirement at the upcoming Mexico City GP, but we remind our readers that Perez vehemently denied them below.

–by Mark Cipolloni–

The real question that must be asked is whether Red Bull should force him to sit the bench due to his poor performances.

They could, but who would they replace him with? George Russell is on Team Boss Christian Horner’s short list because his Mercedes contract expires after 2025.

And what driver wants to go up against Red Bull ace Max Verstappen, perhaps the greatest driver of all time, and have their career destroyed as Max has done to all his teammates?

We also do not want to forget the rumor that Red Bull is purposely throwing away the Constructors’ Championship so they have more wind tunnel time for development of the radically new 2026 car.

(GMM) Sergio Perez has hit reverse gear on swirling rumors about his future in Formula 1. Perez was over 1-second per lap slower than his teammate in the Singapore GP race.

With Daniel Ricciardo expected to be dropped from the lineup of the junior team RB with immediate effect, a new rumor about Perez at the main Red Bull Racing outfit also did the rounds in Singapore.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of this,” Red Bull F1 consultant Dr Helmut Marko smiled when asked about the rumor that Perez, 34, might retire from F1 at the end of the 2024 season.

“But his wife is expecting their fourth child,” Marko mused to Kleine Zeitung newspaper. “An interesting alternative.”

However, the Mexican driver says he’s going nowhere.

“It’s a tough calendar, 24 races a year, but I will be in Formula 1 for at least another two years,” Perez told the Spanish sports daily Marca.

“I don’t think I will be here for a very long time. My contract is for two years, which is a long time in Formula 1, but I know the end is getting closer.

“I admire Fernando Alonso and what he does at his age (43), but I don’t think I’ll race for as long as he has. It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s that I have small children and I want to spend much more time with them.”

It is believed Perez actually already has four children – all of them under 7 years of age.

When asked about retirement, Perez admitted: “I’ve been thinking about it for the last six months, but it took me three seconds to make the decision.

“In the end, after so many years, it would have been the easiest step to take – to walk away and kind of give up. But I would never have forgiven myself if I had done that.

“It’s been a tough year. It was tough to have a car with some limitations and not be able to say anything because your teammate was winning. Max (Verstappen) was driving really well and the gap between us was getting bigger every time.”

That gap is now closing, as Red Bull’s car handling problems became ever more obvious, and Perez insists he does not want to be pushed away from the grid.

“I want to retire when I decide, not when someone tells me,” he confirms. “That’s my main goal – to decide my future myself.

“In the end, people forget about the contract. I just signed the contract. People talk a lot about everything, but I wasn’t worried because I knew the situation.”