Mexico’s Sergio Perez has signed a contract extension with Red Bull to keep him with the Formula One team until the end of 2024.
Perez claimed the third F1 win of his career at Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix, and after the race he was heard joking to Red Bull team boss Christian Horner: “Maybe I signed too early!”
The new deal, confirmed on Monday, will keep Perez and world champion Max Verstappen as teammates for another two seasons.
“For me, this has been an incredible week, winning the Monaco Grand Prix is a dream for any driver and then to follow that with announcing I will continue with the Team until 2024 just makes me extremely happy,” Perez said in a statement on Tuesday.
“I am so proud to be a member of this Team and I feel completely at home here now. We are working very well together and my relationship with Max, on and off the track, is definitely helping drive us forward even more. We have built tremendous momentum as a Team and this season is showing that, I am excited to see where that can take us all in the future.”
Perez joined Red Bull in 2021 from Racing Point and, despite an up and down first year with the team, won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix and turned in some notable performances at the end of the season which helped Verstappen in his title fight with Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton.
This year Perez has clearly been more comfortable with the car. At the Spanish Grand Prix he obeyed a team order to let Verstappen win, before winning in Monaco seven days later.
The Mexican driver is now 15 points behind Verstappen in the Drivers Championship and seems to be a genuine F1 title contender for the first time in his career.
“Since joining Oracle Red Bull Racing, Checo has done a fantastic job,” team boss Christian Horner said in the team’s statement.
“Time and again he has proved himself to not only be a magnificent team player but as his level of comfort has grown he has become a real force to be reckoned with at the sharp end of the grid. This year he has taken another step and the gap to World Champion Max has closed significantly, evidenced by his superb pole position in Jeddah earlier this year and by his wonderful win in Monaco just last weekend. For us, holding onto his pace, race craft and experience was a no-brainer and we are delighted that Checo will continue to race for the team until 2024.”
“In partnership with Max we believe we have a driver pairing that can bring us the biggest prizes in F1.”