Never mind the 16 million Nico Rosberg spoke of, former Bridgestone engineer Kees van de Grint claims Sergio Perez is holding out for “75 million euros” in his Red Bull stand-off.

F1 2024 was Perez’s fourth season with Red Bull, and it was by far his worst.

Red Bull will have to pay Sergio Perez a pretty penny

Fourth in his first season when his heroics at the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix earned him widespread praise, Perez improved to third before last season handing Red Bull their first-ever 1-2 in the Drivers’ Championship as he finished runner-up to Max Verstappen.

This year he’s only eighth, and a distant P8 at that.

At the end of a campaign in which he failed to win a single Grand Prix or pole position, Perez managed just 152 points and four podium results. That all four podiums came in the first five races of the 24-race season highlighted his slump.

His inability to claw his way out of it as he did in 2023 has cost Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship where they finished third, 77 down on McLaren.

It’s led to claims, and numerous rumours, that Perez’s time as a Red Bull driver may be over.

Although he signed a new contract back in May, Red Bull met on Monday to discuss his future as well as their plans for their 2025 line-ups – both Red Bull Racing and Racing Bulls.

The decision has yet to be made public, and Viaplay’s analysts believe that’s because his “buyout sum” is being argued between both Perez and Red Bull’s legal teams.

“It is not clear to me yet,” Van de Grint told Viaplay. “I think he is not leaving, he refuses to resign.

“There are two possibilities, he drives next year or he gets an awful lot of money. The question is what such a buyout amount does to the story.”

“I think the buyout sum is somewhere between 50 and 65 million euros,” said his fellow pundit Allard Kalff.

Van de Grint disagrees: “I think it’s even more. 75 million euros seems like a good number to me. You have to buy out two years of his contract.”

2016 F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg had previously surmised it was around “16 million”.

Perez’s ‘good position’, Red Bull’s ‘not a good’ move

But while Red Bull debate the payout versus the Constructors’ Championship reward, Kalff says they also have to take into account what Perez brings in through sponsorship and South American sales.

He believes that is why Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko said the “shareholders” will decide.

“That’s why Helmut Marko says that the shareholders have to judge, because they can’t decide this themselves,” said Kalff. “He simply has a contract, and Red Bull now says, ‘Maybe we shouldn’t do it after all’.

“Then you start talking about money. You have to buy out two years of the contract, and you don’t get any money from Carlos Slim for two years. That’s a huge amount.

“The Thai and Austrian shareholders have to decide on this. Marko and Christian Horner can’t decide this together. Maybe they’ll say later, ‘This is too much, stay put’.

“We’ve known for a long time that they want to get rid of him.”

“He’s in a good position,” Van de Grint accepted. “In hindsight it was not a good move [from Red Bull], but it was a move by Horner to motivate him, and to get some peace in the house.’