Perez will take a six-month sabbatical before deciding whether to try a return to F1

Axed Red Bull driver Sergio Perez can have not less than a six-month break in 2025 before deciding whether he’ll try and return to Formula 1 in any respect.

Perez's F1 profession got here to an abrupt halt at the tip of the 2024 season when Red Bull decided to pay him to not race within the upcoming campaign after a protracted string of poor performances last season.

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This ended with Red Bull missing out on the 2024 Constructors' Championship to associate with Max Verstappen's fourth consecutive drivers' crown – won in his second RB20 – and the team ultimately opted not to increase Perez's contract by two years and as a substitute promote Liam Lawson in his place.

In his first public comments since Red Bull and Perez reached an agreement in mid-December 2024, meaning he’ll spend the approaching period on the fringes of F1, Perez said: “Everything will come in its time” with regards to his racing future.

“In the next six months I will make a decision about my career,” added Perez, who spoke on the Feria de Leon event within the Mexican state of Guanajuato.

“I am completely happy and I will return to Formula 1 if that makes me happy the most.”

Throughout the 2024 F1 season, Perez insisted he would keep his side of the expected cope with Red Bull – a tricky negotiating tactic intended to make sure he was paid for not racing in 2025.

Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

That's why he said he was also happy with the proven fact that he “never gave up” through the series of races that followed the extension of his no-longer contract, signed early last summer.

“The important thing is that I never gave up,” Perez said. “Whenever something difficult happened in my profession, something higher got here because I never gave up.

“I'm very enthusiastic about what's coming this yr, I'm very calm and really glad.

“I really enjoy my children, family and friends. I will finally travel, because in these years I have traveled all over the world, but without realizing it.”

If Perez fails to return to F1 in 2026 – his departure from Red Bull will come after filling all remaining seats within the upcoming campaign – he’ll retire within the category with six wins and three pole positions from 281 starts.

Red Bull has previously said that Perez will “continue to be associated with the brand and the team” – in keeping with team principal Christian Horner – away from the track, although this appears to have yet to take shape as he was not wearing the team kit on the Leon Festival.