A truly bizarre rumour has come out of last weekend’s Mexican Grand Prix, linking Sergio Perez with a return to his former team.
Perez’s future remains a huge talking point after he retired from the Mexican GP on the opening lap, after colliding with Charles Leclerc at the first corner.
The home hero was fighting for the lead when the accident took place, sending his supporters into shock and disbelief.
Perez desperately needed a good result last weekend just to silence some of the rumours, which are continuing to spiral out of control.
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The latest rumour has suggested that Perez could move to Aston Martin in 2024, the side he left to join Red Bull at the end of 2020.
Back then, the Silverstone-based squad were known as Racing Point, whom Perez led superbly.
It’s been suggested that Fernando Alonso could vacate Aston Martin and take Perez’s spot at Red Bull, in what would effectively be a swap deal.
Red Bull advisor Dr Helmut Marko has spoken very highly of the two-time World Champion in the past and admitted that Alonso is one of the only drivers who could get close to Max Verstappen.
“Being second behind Max is like a win,” Marko recently said, as reported by The Express.
“There won’t be any other driver who could stay with him on one level. Maybe [Fernando] Alonso and [Lewis] Hamilton would be nearer, but nobody could beat him at the moment.”
Some have reported that Perez’s 2024 contract with Red Bull won’t be respected if he fails to claim second in the Drivers’ Championship, a spot he’s battling Lewis Hamilton for.
However, team principal Christian Horner has stressed this isn’t the case and that the plan is for the 33-year-old to continue with the Milton Keynes-based outfit next year.
READ: Are Fernando Alonso and Sergio Perez swapping seats in 2024?
“It’s not as binary as that,” Horner said.
“You’ve got to look at the circumstances, and so on. Checo [Perez] has an agreement with us for next year and that’s our intention for him to be in the car in 2024. But we’ll give him all the support that we can, to ensure that he finishes second but there’s no prerequisite that, if he doesn’t finish second, he’s out.”
Several reporters have tried to quash the rumours by insisting that Alonso and Perez will not be moving, although some journalists have stated on Twitter/X that a big story is developing in the paddock.