‘Total disaster’: Contract rumour throws F1 into disarray

Wild details about the most discussed contract in Formula 1 have been leaked with Daniel Ricciardo at the centre of the drama.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez.

It was anarchy in the UK for Red Bull as the team’s future was further destabilised following a rollercoaster British Grand Prix on Monday morning.

World champion Max Verstappen managed to recover to finish on the podium, but it was a trainwreck weekend for teammate Sergio Perez, who was lapped twice by 15 drivers and finished 17th.

The Mexican driver’s latest failure comes as wild details about his mysterious contract extension leaked with reports emerging the senior Red Bull team is ready to pull the trigger on him.

Mercedes legend Lewis Hamilton produced one of his best drives in years to break his three-year victory drought, but there was just as much interest in the Red Bull garage after the race.

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According to PlanetF1 and other international motorsport news sites, Perez could lose his seat this month as the racing category heads into a summer break following the Hungarian and Belgian Grands Prix.

The rumours claim Red Bull has a clause open for it to cut Perez immediately if he sits more than 100 championship points behind his teammate.

After the British Grand Prix where he also bombed out in qualifying, Perez is 137 points behind Verstappen and sits sixth in the world championship.

The 34-year-old recently penned a two-year contract extension to stay at Red Bull until 2026, but the contract doesn’t appear to be worth the paper it is printed on.

During the last six races, Perez has registered 15 points as opposed to 119 for Verstappen.

Perez was hard done by in Monday morning’s race and described his weekend as a “total disaster”.

Daniel Ricciardo and Sergio Perez.

His team’s gamble to put him on intermediate tyres with rain on the horizon backfired badly when the rain took too long to arrive and he ended up needing to pit again after haemorrhaging lap time.

Red Bull boss Christian Horner said his team had to roll the dice because of the position Perez was in.

His team’s tactical blunder won’t save his bacon, judged on the team’s previous ruthless moves when axing drivers in the middle of the year.

“I know where I am in terms of contract and that sort of thing,” Perez said.

“I cannot let it be a distraction.

“I need to focus on the next two weekends, which are the priority, and together as a team, to get out of this difficult period.”

Daniel Ricciardo is at the centre of the drama as the man best positioned to be promoted to the seat, despite his struggles against teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Ricciardo finished 13th after a tough day in the office where his car underwent major surgery before the start of the race.

The Australian was clearly lacking pace and the changes made to his Visa Cash App RB didn’t appear to unlock any performance.

Tsunoda started well in the opening lap of the race and picked up a championship point in P10.

Despite this, Ricciardo’s future appears to be in chaos with a best case scenario of racing alongside Verstappen and a worst case scenario of losing his RB seat to Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson.

It was reported last month RB officials wanted to promote Lawson to the second RB seat alongside Tsunoda.

The flip to side to that scenario is that Ricciardo and Perez reportedly have performance clauses that would allow the senior team to slot Ricciardo into Perez’s seat without any mess.

Former world champion Jenson Button said on Sky Sports after the race the team needs to cut Perez if he doesn’t show immediate improvement in Hungary and Belgium.

“It’s a massive, massive issue,” he said.

“This was a terrible weekend. It was unlucky in some ways as well. This isn’t going to happen every race weekend, but for McLaren to be taking this many points out of them, it’s big.

“He needs to be scoring some points at least. Even if he’s not directly behind Max.

“They can’t let it go on forever. I think in the next race, if he’s not scoring points again – soon enough they’ve got to get him out of the car and put someone else in. It’s tough I know.

“It’s not a nice feeling for a driver. It’s horrible. But for them, the manufacturer’s championship is important.”

Ricciardo, who previously represented Red Bull from 2014 to 2018, will be leaving the Silverstone track feeling just as uncomfortable with reports suggesting Lawson has a filming and tyre testing day with RB.

Horner said on Sky Sports Lawson’s test with RB had been scheduled months ago, but it piles further pressure on Ricciardo to hold onto his seat with the junior Red Bull outfit.

The 35-year-old was also hard done by after his power unit was replaced with a previously used engine before the race.

Anything could happen for Daniel Ricciardo. Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images.

“Hopefully there’s a big hole in my car that I haven’t see yet, and that’s the reason why we’re really slow,” he said.

“We honestly, just as a team, for sure we struggle here. Looking at the Williams at the end on that stint, and [Logan] Sargeant pulled away from me and I believe [Alex] Albon came and passed [Yuki] Tsunoda.

“Yuki got a point, he did well, but I think as a team we weren’t very competitive this weekend.”

The only clear picture of the Red Bull game of musical chairs came from Horner when he spoke on Friday.

Asked whether Red Bull had offered Perez a contract extension too early, Horner replied: “That’s a brutally hard question.

“It made absolute sense to sign Checo at that point in time, but this is a business in which there are pressures to deliver.”

“We thought the contract would help. I think it’s something that Checo is working very hard on, and he knows this is a sport where there’s no hiding.

“Particularly with Max Verstappen as your teammate. He knows he’s being measured against the very best, and we need him up there supporting Max, because there’s two McLarens now, there’s two Ferraris, there’s two Mercedes and we need there to be desperately two Red Bulls.”

Originally published as ‘Total disaster’: Contract rumour throws F1 into disarray