Perez heading towards Red Bull F1 exit

Sergio Perez appears increasingly likely to depart the Red Bull F1 team at the end of the current season.

Perez has endured a highly challenging season at Red Bull and speculation regarding his future at the team has been consistent for some time.

The Mexican driver has scored just a solitary point in the last four grands prix and currently sits 277 points down on team-mate Max Verstappen, who has already sealed his fourth F1 title.

Perez entered the current season with question marks already hanging over his future but penned a two-year extension with the squad after a strong opening number of rounds.

However, his best result since the announcement of his extension is a sixth-place finish.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner urged Perez to “reach his own conclusions” regarding his F1 future after another difficult round in Qatar.

It is now being suggested team and driver are due to split following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix this weekend, which marks the final round of the campaign.

The bigger question, however, is how easily Red Bull can remove Perez. After all, the Mexican has a contract in his pocket for next year, and all talk about potential exit clauses has never been publicly confirmed.

Red Bull is also benefitting from the considerable sponsorship money that Perez presents to the team, rumoured to be around $30 million.

There is also the issue of who would replace the 34-year-old, with the leading candidates appearing to be RB drivers Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson.

Franco Colapinto was also rumoured to be in contention, however, Horner has now seemingly ruled out the Argentine.