It seems that Sergio Perez' recent struggles on the track could also hit him in the wallet, as reports emerged of a performance-related clause in his current contract with Red Bull Racing.
Citing sources said to be familiar with the matter, Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported on Saturday that Perez's current pay deal with Red Bull can be adjusted this month if he's 125 points or more behind Max Verstappen.
That's exactly the margin between the pair going into the summer break, meaning that even though he's second in the championship Perez faces a potential drop in salary and related payments for the second half of the season.
Various media sources have calculated that Perez is currently on a salary of around $7.5 million per year, with a bonus of around $3.5 unrelated to personal sponsorship deals.
Perez was within 14 points of Verstappen after the fifth race of the season in Miami, but failed to finish in Monaco and then suffered a string of sub-par qualifying performances over several ensuing weekends.
Meanwhile Verstappen has proved impossible to beat, recording a phenomenal eight consecutive wins since Miami through to Spa, which has resulted in a huge advantage over Perez and the other drivers on the grid.
Red Bull motorsport consultant Dr Helmut Marko recently suggested Perez had “woken up” from his title dream, while Sky Sports F1 pundit Karun Chandhok expressed fears that Red Bull has “broken” the Mexican.
Although the team could now trigger the clause to adjust his pay, it is not expected to change the length of his current deal which runs until the end of 2024.
Red Bull said it would not respond to questions from De Telegraaf or the media about the content of contracts.
Perez is under increased pressure following the return of former Red Bull driver Danial Ricciardo to the grid. He has taken over from Nyck de Vries at AlphaTauri and makes no secret of eyeing Perez' position at the senior squad.
But Perez was given some reassurance on this aspect at least by new comments this week from Red Bull boss Christian Horner ,who ruled out Ricciardo heading to Red Bull before 2025.
"The reason that Daniel was brought back into the seat is not because he has long-term aspirations to be an AlphaTauri driver for the next five years," Horner told the media.
"He sees it as the quickest route to getting back into a competitive seat, and clearly his objectives are on a 2025 Red Bull Racing seat when we have a vacancy," he noted. "That's his objective, but that wouldn't be before 2025."
Perez has expressed his regret that Ricciardo has moved to AlphaTauri after a stint as Red Bull reserve, but for a very different reason - saying that he would miss the Australian's input in the simulator at Milton Keynes.
"I think he's done a great job for us," Perez told the media. "It's a bit of a shame that we end up losing him [to AlphaTauri] because he's obviously a very experienced driver that understands a lot of the car.
"We get on really well and he's been good for Red Bull," he added. Maybe too good, unfortunately for Perez.
Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter
