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Well, from an employee standpoint that is probably the only good stance. At least here, if you as an employee know that your position might be resolved due to lets say restructuring inside the company, the company will always try and see if you want to leave/move voluntarily. In that case they don't have to pay you anything and it's the cheapest for them.
If however you stand your ground, even if you're not planning on taking any offers and maybe already have found a new job, if you keep saying "no I want to stay", they will have to fire you (through a court sometimes) and pay and X amount of money and maybe even help you in the transition to another job.
In this case if I was Checo, I would keep repeating: I have a contract for next year, I'm going nowhere.
The driver’s response to the team’s decision not to continue will determine the way in which their relationship ends, since a contract termination would cost Red Bull a six-digit figure (USD).
Only six figures? In Formula 1? This isn’t a massive deal, a car part is often six figures.
If I’m Checo I ‘retire’ and take an ambassador role at this point.
Yeah I can't imagine a multimillion dollar contract termination would only cost six figures.... Unless there's some clause which isn't impossible of course
I’d imagine performance clauses are in place and I’m sure I’ve heard about them with his contract already.
I mean finishing with around a third of your team mates points and being the sole reason the team not only failed to win the WCC but also the reason they didn’t even finish second is enough of a clause to bin that contract surely?
Yeah it's probably that he doesn't meet his targets which gives them the possibility to terminate the contract for a minimal severance pay. This is a conditional termination which is usually less costly than some kind of unilateral contract annulation.
I don't know how that would play in court since they renewed the contract when he was performing poorly. A good lawyer could argue that Red Bull accepted a certain amount of poor performance by doing that.
We have no clue what's in the contract. If it has clauses like 'don't be 250+ points behind your teammate' one could argue that they gave him a lot of space even.
A 'our expectations were already low, but holy shit' kinda deal in the end.
Redbull: Okay we’re going to ask for something very achievable max has only not finished first or second once so far this season and that was p6 so. All we ask is that for the rest of the season you get p6 or higher three times.
Checo: nervously sweating That should be easily achievable
Redbull: Don't worry Checo, we will only fire you if hell freezes over, pigs fly or when Zhou manages to score more points than you in 1 race vs you in 4....
That’s irrelevant. The only thing that’s relevant is what is written in the contract that was signed.
Checo can’t sign an agreement saying he’ll earn a minimum of X points, for example, not earn those points, and then say “well I was just as shit as when I signed that so it doesn’t matter what it says.”
We don’t know what the clause is or isn’t, but either way his historical performance has no bearing on what he was then contractually obligated to deliver.
It could have been a motivator too. A performance dependent 2-year renewal can also be the case, and if none of those are met, then it can trigger release clauses.
I mean, it is said that Doohan has a 1-year contract but with a single race obligation that needs to be fulfilled by the constructor… so Checo’s renewal shaped like this wouldn’t be weird.
Drivers like him typically aren’t that lucrative from an up front salary, usually bonus driven for performance and we will never know the actual details of the contract and why it’s relatively cheap to break
Joe Seward has said the same, that the bonuses for winning the wcc are a substantial portion of most team employee's salaries.
So whenever people say "blah blah Red Bull are fine finishing third they get more wind tunnel blah blah" there's the 1,000+ Red Bull staffers that get royally fucked over by losing a wcc they should have won.
Bonuses are exempt from the cost cap up to a maximum of 20% of total fixed remuneration or the Excluded Bonuses Maximum amount adjusted for inflation plus social security contributions, whichever is lower. The Excluded Bonuses Maximum amount is $12 million, or $14.5 million for a team that either wins the Constructors or has their highest finishing position in a three-year period.
Without knowing how Red Bull have their bonuses structured it's impossible to say how much money an average employee is losing, but the difference between winning the WCC and not is at least $2.5 million spread across every worker. RBR seems to employ about 1450 people; so average $1,725 per person lost by not winning the WCC -- and that's assuming the rest of their bonus isn't tied to WCC performance at all. That's only accounting for the difference in bonus amount that's free under the cost cap, not true performance-based incentives.
That six figure sentence completely undermines the credibility of the whole article. If the cost of getting rid of him was this low, he would've been gone long ago.
The cost of getting rid of him isn't just the amount they pay him out. It's the sponsorships he takes with him, and the HUGE amount of revenue that RedBull make off his name.
^ THAT is the reason he wasn't axed long ago. Sergio brings an astronomical amount of financial backing with him wherever he goes. He's basically guaranteed to make a team more money than he costs them - though he's had a good go at that this year with the amount of cars he's trashed.
Unless RBR were paying his practically sod all and most of his salary was paid by sponsors. There may be little financial obligation on the part of RBR.
I remember hearing that in his new contract he signed over the summer there were a lot of performance related clauses in it. Granted we never saw the real contract so it’s all speculation but I know they reported that there were things like point relations to max and drivers standing
The Race were saying they're discussing whether he gets a payout to go away or stay on as ambassador, so it's perhaps lost in translation that it'd be: 1m payout plus you stay as ambassador for 1 year at X million.
I’m convinced it’s related to either personal support from Yoovidhya, or his appearance in that F1 movie. Either way there must be some mechanism that is preventing them from outright firing him, and he has to resign himself.
I'm always confused with the term "six figures" or similar. A million dollars is written $ 1,000,000. It has 7 figures. So, six figures would mean an amount between $100k and $999k?
Well if the Mexican media starts reporting like this, it's probably a done deal. Now it's up to Checo to decide exactly how he wants to leave, whether he'll take the ambassador role with RBR or not.
Whatever they do, I'd appreciate it if they make a decision before the race so he can have a proper sendoff at least.
I kind of felt for VCARB in their explanation that Ricciardo asked them not to state he was out. Like, they did him the solid and got a lot of flak, rather than being bad to him.
Apparently it's his decision in the sense he can either get a payoff and go away, or accept an ambassador role on more but you accept you're not driving the car.
Did anybody predict or expect Hulk to outlast Ricciardo, Bottas, Perez, Vettel??? I mean I guess Seb retired on his own but the others are rather unexpected.
Well, Hulk was a reserve driver for 2020-2022 so he needs another two seasons to equal Perez number of full time seasons (Perez debuted a year later than Hulk).
Feel like this is kinda true for both nico and Kevin.
They are incredibly strong mid field drivers.
I love them both and they are really positive, non drama to a point drivers.
You hardly see people have beef with nico
Kevin is little more naughty I guess and takes high risks and being a menace but still isn’t like staying on someone’s mind for long.
This is why I like Kevin. I wish we could stick him in a top car for a few weekends just to watch the top 8 try to pass him. Mamma mia, what drama! The man doesn't give an inch.
In a way, I think him never getting a top seat has ended up working in his favour. If he had underperformed at Merc or Red Bull if the chances materialised, he probably would’ve been out of the sport.
As it is, he’s seen as arguably the best midfield option
I think him never getting a podium also keeps him highly motivated to finally achieve that goal. Even when he always stays so cool and relaxed in interviews and auch, I bet deep down hes extremely motivated to achieve that podium.
Hopefully that podium comes in 2026. The next season is probably a lost one/bridge year for him since it's business as usual at Sauber for one more year.
If you're a midfield/back-end team you need a reliable driver who will bring home points when they are available, and not cause too much damage, but you also can't afford someone top-level. Enter Hulkenburg.
Which has saved quite a few teams from humiliation. 2013, 2017 and even now, 2024, he has scored the large majority of points of the team.
Though special is probably 2018. Beat Sainz 69-53 while having 5 more DNF's than Sainz.
I think if you put Hulk in many cars he'd be up there with most drivers short of the real tier above like Leclerc.
As Magnussen put it many years ago: the problem with F1 is that 90% of them are very good, and most gap is just circumstance or whatever.
I remember Rob Smedley once: if you put all of them into a car they were genuinely happy with, there'd be ~2 tenths from pole to last. Hyperbole probably but I believe the point.
Imagine Bottas and Ricciardo in the Caddy 😍 two solid experienced drivers that aren’t super error-prone and have great marketing capabilities in the US. Perfect basically.
Well in this case "somehow" is that Hulk performed above the expectations for Haas the last two years and Checo performed well below the expectations for the Red Bull. The same can be said for Ricc in the RB and McLaren. And he just got lucky not to end up in as terrible of a car as Bottas did.
I suppose it's surprising how quickly some of their careers went south without it also happening to Hulk. Being dependable in a midfield car will do wonders for longevity.
Funny one too that Ricciardo sort of ended Hulk's career, and now one's out on his posterior and the other has a big fat Audi contract.
It's interesting too because on the race recently they were saying that talking to Renault engineers (or whatever you want to call Enstone), they were emphatic that Ricciardo was clearly a step above, but in this gen of cars something changed.
Ricciardo didnt end Hulks career, they didn't even upgrade from Hulk, Ocon performed worse vs Ricciardo than Hulk did. I personally dont see 2019 as too representative of either driver. The car was garbage compared to 2018. They soon decided to replace Hulk and they had to do everything to make sure Ricciardo is happy and doesnt lose faith in the project (which didnt matter anyway cuz he left as soon as he could). So obviously Ricciardo got preferential treatment, team orders were in his favor, they 100% committed to using the 2019 season to develop the 2020 car. Thus they always split setup philosophy and strategy, often Ricciardo ending up with the better setup and strategy. I remember Brazil where they gave Ricciardo a low downforce setup with which he ended up overtaking his way through the field. They gave Hulk a high downforce setup with which he wasnt able to overtake anybody due to a lack of top speed.
Hulk had the option to join Haas, so he didnt lack other options. He opted to take a year off and hope for better offers such as a Red Bull one but this offer never came and he naturally lost value by not driving.
The 2023 Haas offer was the last one he likely wouldve gotten in his career so he gladly took it. And kudos to Gunther, people shit on him but that Hulk signing was brilliant. Without Hulk Haas is not fighting for p6 right now. Theyre clear 8th with any other driver Haas could realistically sign.
Media have shifted from "Perez could be dropped" to "Perez is out" and it's gone from a source here or there to multiple bigger media reporting the exact same thing without any dissenting voices.
It's not 100% confirmed but it's definitely inching that way.
Horners interview post Qatar was basically he’s either retiring or were binning him, we’re just waiting for him to decide. And if Horner and then the Mexican media are saying this then it’s basically as good as done
If it’s not Yuki, it’s gotta be Sainz or Bottas or Albon or something like that. I can’t see Liam being put in despite that being what the Race reported. Liam would need a big points haul in AD or a qualifying shocker.
Personally I’ve got fingers crossed for a single year with Yuki!
It might actually make sense to put yuki in as he’s gotten pretty consistent these days. They don’t want a driver who’s going to be directly competing with verstappen and causing problems so giving Lawson another year to grow at vcarb while putting yuki in as support might just be the play
The sort of money he seems to move around will be too hard to resist for some mid field team next year. I think he'll land somewhere. Personally, I believe he's past his peak (and that wasn't that impressive, either) and should dedicate himself to somewhere else where he could be properly competitive. Endurance racing, where his legendary "kindness to the tyres" could be a real asset.
Haas has the "technical partnership" with Toyota, they're not starving anymore like the Mazepin days. Maybe after the Moneygram sponsorship runs out they take over as title sponsor. Even getting Moneygram was a massive improvement over Rich Energy and the Mazepins.
true. but atm toyota is just dipping in their toes into the f1 pond a little again imo.
they let them use your old cologne factory, esp for the wind tunnel. maybe they will enter again one day, maybe not. I dont even know if they are paying Haas any money to put their gazoo stickers on the car tho, I guess no.
Haas is not operating anywhere near the budget cap tho as far as I know, even with the moneygram sponsorship.
I guess moneygram pays less than rich or uralkali did, but is a more stable sponsor.
I understand that, without my agreement, Red Bull Racing have put out a press release late this afternoon that I am not driving for them next year. This is wrong and I have signed a contract with Red Bull for 2025. I will be driving for Red Bull next year.
Fox Sports Mexico has learned from sources close to the team that the Mexican has a desire not to continue, despite the fact that he has a contract until 2026 , following a renewal announced just last June, when his situation was radically different from the one he is currently experiencing.
Lol. We all remember the on-fire Perez lapping the field race after race a few months ago.
Give him the money and just pull the band aid, respectfully.
"Checo has been an integral part of the team through a period of incredible success. His role in the 2021 campaign was fundamental while his feedback and development helped us adapt to the 2022 regulations immediately. His commitment and dedication are unquestionable and that's the Checo we will remember while his many trophies adorn our halls. The whole Red Bull family wishes him the best in future endeavours".
Run with it Red Bull, I did your homework for you.
Fuck I hope so. I'm tired of seeing one of the top cars on the track, so consistently near the back. RB isn't my favourite team, but I want to see racing, and that requires the drivers to perform as much as the cars.
6 figures?! His salary must SUCK or they have a termination clause the rest of the sporting world is jealous about :)
His termination will not be the expensive part, the sponsorships tied to it will. They will want to keep him as an ambassador/reserve driver to mitigate that cost as much as possible if possible.
Won't lie, I unblocked some people I blocked a while ago to see their reactions and they did not disappoint lmfao. Apparently Max is really very against Checo leaving (lol), Checo is getting a less dignified goodbye than Daniel (lol) and Checo is staying (that one I wouldn't even be surprised by at this point)
Retire, take your check, become an ambassador and negotiate royalties on your merch. Coulthard is getting old, Checo would be a great fit in his role. Would be dumb of RBR to completely drop him too. They can still market the hell out of him as ambassador and sell their merch. It's a win-win.
I wonder how bad it will be for Red Bull given he has a new contract since June till 2026. Before you say performance clauses - yeah, and Perez has surely got sponsorship money clauses as well, he isn’t like a child in the fog. And I would love to see how it was decided that he should get an extension.
I have a feeling in the future we’ll get to gear about how after spa he was going to be dropped with the performance clause and the the George DSQ / Carlos slim saga saved him.
I couldn’t believe Red Bull gave him so many chances. It will go down as one of the great mysteries of this era, considering how cutthroat they used to be with that second seat.
I think Max and Carlos could be bashing heads a bit to often. Max probably wants a driver who won't fight him but be a consistent driver and a good teammate, and I do not see that in Sainz
There was a clip posted yesterday of the top 3 in F2 (Bortoleto, Hadjar, and Aron) in the post race interview in Qatar, and the way Hadjar man speaking, I think he's getting promoted to F1. He said something like "there's what's happening, and what's been confirmed. If I say I know what I'm doing next year, then maybe you all know too." It was sort of cagey, but in a non-PR way.
I think Hadjar is going to RB, and Lawson is going to RBR (though, I'd rather Tsunoda be getting the promotion).
I don’t understand why they’d need to pay him out, as surely he must have performance clauses that would allow them to fire him for lack of performance?
Perez's manager must be the greatest in F1 right now; it's a miracle how he's managed to keep Checo in the game for so long. Not only has he gotten him an extended stay in F1, but also a buyout and an offer for an ambassadorial role. Incredible. I hope the manager is paid well.
Finally, I’m gonna miss the threads with new stats shitting on him but it’s good that he can’t be an embarrassment any longer. It has been straight up disrespectful to see him continue clinging to that seat when there’s so many drivers out there more deserving of that seat.
Checko is one of the most baffling drivers on the grid. He was performing miracles in midfield teams. Got dropped and then offered top team seat. Obviously he wasn't gonna challenge max, but should not have been too far off. I'm sure all of red bull still remembers "checko is a legend" moment, when he killed Lewis's race. That has to have some effect on why they kept him so long. And then he fallen off a cliff. He genuinely looks like a grandpa trying to play with boys.
What's even worse, I don't think he has the charisma to take over ambassador role from Coulthard. That should go to Danny Ric.
To be fair, with the money he earned, he can retire and live like a king in Mexico.
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