Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has revealed that Sergio Perez will not completely leave the Austrian brand or the Milton Keynes-based team.
Horner confirmed that Perez will do some demonstrations next year, despite losing his seat in the team to Liam Lawson.
It was announced on Wednesday that Perez and Red Bull had agreed to part ways after four seasons together, opening the door for Lawson to be promoted as Max Verstappen's new teammate.
"No, it's not a layoff, it's a little different from that," Horner responded when asked what the relationship with Perez will be like.
“Sergio has been with us for four years and, for the first three years, he played a huge role in the team and certainly in this first World Drivers' Championship.
“Just think about Abu Dhabi 2021, the role he played for the team that day; Constructors' Champion in 2022/23; he was second in the Drivers' Championship last year.”
“He's just had a really tough year this year and we sat down last week – obviously we'd talked about it a little bit before – and decided it was good for both of us to just take a step back, that he get out of the car, spend some time with his family, think about what he wants to do.”
“He’s still going to be involved in the team,” Horner revealed at the time. “He’ll be doing a few demo runs with us over the next year.”
“But it was good for him – because it wasn’t nice for him either, getting all this scrutiny and pressure and expectation every weekend.”
As mentioned, Perez had signed a new contract in June; however, it was thanks to the terms of this agreement that allowed Red Bull to make the key driver change.
“He had signed a new contract, but of course, in these contracts there are clauses.”
“I'm not going to go into the details of the contract, but inevitably there are stipulations, there are obligations between the team and the drivers.
“We sat down and we discussed it. Before talking about the raw contract, it is also about human relations and we have always had a great relationship with Sergio.”
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