The short answer is, yes, at least on paper. Red Bull hav💎e repeatedly stressed that Perez’s seat is safe for 2024, as per his contract, which expires at the end of next season. 

Add to that the confirmation that 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Daniel Ricciardo and 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Yuki Tsunoda will be staying put at AlphaTauri next year and it would appear, on the face of it at least, that Perez is go🐎ing nowhere. 

But for all of the PR spin, it is common knowledge in the paddock that contracts mean very little in F1. Every driver ultimately has their price and there are usually all sorts of secret get-out and performance-related clauses inserted into d🌱eals. These are often denied by teams who wish to keep such matters private. 

While Perez’s seat may not be under immediate threat, there is a feeling of꧃ inevitability that the Mexican’s position will become precarious if he fails to get on top of his performances. 

Horner piling on the pressure 

Although Horne🙈r has continued to publicly back Perez, even after🅘 his most inexplicable of weekends, he has also subtly stoked up the pressure. 

In an interview with Sky Sports News in the days that followed Red Bull’s constructors’ championship coronation at Suzuka, Horner stated that McLaren’s 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lando Norris is one of “168澳洲幸运5官♎方开奖结果历史:many” drivers his side are keeping an eyཧe on. 

Horner’s admission about Red Bull having “quite a bit of interest” in their seat alongside 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen for 2025 should set alarm bells ringing for Perez, if they ꩲweren’t already. 

"Now, being Max's team-mate is never going to be easy and some drivers may be up for that challenge, some may not be,” Horner added. “But, of course, as well as the drivers we have in-house we keep an eye on all t🗹he driver market.

"As you can imagine, t💧he𝓡re's quite a bit of interest from certain sectors about driving a Red Bull car.”

If Red Bull were completely happy with their current driver line-up, Horner surely wouldn’t be entertaining such notions, and certai𒉰nly not in such an open manner. 

Is it second place or bust? 

In the same interview, Horner interestingly placed heavy emphasis on Perez’s champio🅠nship positi🧸on. 

Following his miserable run of form, Perez has slipped 175 points adrift of his dominant teammate, while he now sits just 33 points clear of third-placed 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Lewis Hamilton. 

Perez has never finished higher than third in the drivers’ standings, while a 1-2 in the same championship has so far evaded Red Bull despite all of their F1 success.&ꦇnbsp;

"He's got at least a one race weekend sort of [points] 'buffer' to Lewis and greater than that to Fernan🉐do [Alonso] behind him,” Horner sai🍌d. 

"It's something that we've never achieved; we've never finished first and second with🦋 any of our drivers in the world championship so it would be a big thing for us to achieve.

"He came close las🗹t year, it would be his best-ever result, and he's got the best car that he's ever had to b🐻e able to try and achieve that result.

"Japan was frustrating and difficult for him, but he'll bounce back. I'm sure there's enough races with the six grands prix remaining for him still🃏 to achieve some great results between now and the end of the season.”

Even with the drivers’ crown set to be wrapped up by Verstappen next time out 🎐in Qatar, Horner is making an effort to keep Perez on his toes so he remains motivated for the final six races.

2024 will be a defining year 

There is an argument that despite his struggles, Perez remains the perfect number two for Red Bull. He has, after all, helped the team secure back to back constructors’ championships and does not cause intra-team friction. Red Bull do not have the worry about their drivers running into each other like Mercedes did during the Hamilton-168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nico Rosberg days. 

For now, Red Bull can cope with - and just about accept - Perez’s inconsistencies. Evཧen if Perez was taken out of the equation, Verstappen would remarkably still be leading the constructors’ championship all by himself. 

Concern▨s will surely ramp up, however, if Red Bull ends up facing sterner competition from the likes of Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and McLaren in 2024. 

In that situation, Red Bull could ill afford to have only one driver on the pꦗodium at each race. In a more fiercely-fought title battle, Perez’s misdemeanours would prove more costly, and potentially result in Red Bull missing out on world champion🅠ships.

Barring a disastrous end to the season, Perez will still be a Red Bull driver next year, at least to begin with. But his position may become untenable, especially if Ricciardo and Tsunoda excel at AlphaTauri. Red Bull also have their highly-rated reserve driver 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Liam Lawson waiting in the wings.

I💧n a scenario in which Perez continues to underperform, not only would he be at risk of being o𒉰usted for 2025, but he may not even see out the whole season. 

There is no doubt that 2024 will be a c🎐ritical year in defining Perez’s F1 future.