Perez addresses Vettel-RP rumours: “I think it’s obvious if someone has to go“
With many rumours linking Sebastian Vettel with potential seat in Racing Point, Sergio Perez said it is “obvious’ which driver in the team would be replaced.
Sebastian Vettel, a four time world champion that spent the past years at Scuderia Ferrari is currently ‘in talks” with Racing Point over joining the team for next season. From the season of 2021 the Racing Point team will be rebranded as Aston Martin, due to the the fact that Lawrence Stroll became the chairman of Aston Martin earlier this year, when the brand encountered huge financial troubles. It is obviously expected that Lance Stroll, the son of the chairman and one of the current Racing Point drivers, will remain on the team. Currently both Stroll and Perez are under long-term contracts, but theres still a possibility for line-up change for 2021.
Sergio Perez spoke out last week about the situation, saying that although he did had a valid contract for next season, it would be him who would have to leave the team if Stroll Sr. would decide to sign Vettel to partner his son on the team.
As he said in an interview on Movistar+ F1: “I think it is obvious if someone has to go. I’m a dad, I wouldn't kick my son out, but there's not much I can say. There are many [rumours] around. From me, nothing – everything remains the same. I have a contract with the team.”
Allegedly, there is an exit clause in the contract of Perez that needs to be triggered by the team in order to make room for Vettel to join the team. The clause is related to sponsorship agreements. For quite some years now Perez provided big sponsorship money from Mexican companies to the teams that he was in, and currently the most significant one is Telemex.
As Perez said: “In all contracts, there are always clauses. It is a bit related to sponsorship. That can open that clause. But we're working hard with all our sponsors so that this does not happen. I would not say that it depends on a single sponsor, it is more of an overall issue.”
Perez also said that due to the rumours of Vettel potentially replacing him at Racing Point, he has been already approached by a rival F1 team as well as teams in other championship series about the possibility to drive for 2021.
