Sergio Perez 'knew he wasn't achieving what Red Bull needed' as clause in contract revealed

Christian Horner has revealed that Red Bull activated a clause in Sergio Perez's contract to axe the Mexican driver.

Perez's four years as Max Verstappen's teammate came to an end on December 18 after weeks of speculation, following a dismal campaign for the 34-year-old, that saw him finish almost 300 points behind his title winning teammate. Perez's poor performances, especially when compared with Verstappen, saw the team miss out on millions in prize money in F1's constructors world championship for finishing behind McLaren and Ferrari - and Perez paid the price, losing his drive just six months after inking an extended deal.

Perez's seat will now be taken by RB's Liam Lawson, who impressed after replacing Daniel Ricciardo midway through the season. And speaking on TalkSport, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner revealed that a clause in Perez's contract had been activated to end his deal early. Horner said: "Sergio has been with us for four years, and in the first three years he played a huge role in the team. You only have to think back to Abu Dhabi 2021 and the role he played for the team on that day.

"We were constructors champions in 2022 and 2023 and he was runner-up in the drivers’ championship. He’s just had a really tough year this year and we sat down last week, we’d been talking about it beforehand, but we decided it would be right to step back and for him to step out of the car and spend a bit of time with his family and work out what he wants to do.

"He’s still going to be involved with the team, he’ll be doing a couple of show runs for us this year. It was right for him because it wasn’t enjoyable for him getting all this scrutiny and pressure and expectation every weekend.

"He had signed a new contract,