Sergio Perez, Force India, Spa-Francorchamps, 2018

Perez expects to confirm 2019 plans before Singapore

2019 F1 season

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Sergio Perez says he intends to announce his plans for the 2019 F1 season ahead of the next round of the championship in Singapore.

As RaceFans reported previously, Perez has already signed a deal for next year. He is believed to have extended his deal with Force India, who he joined in 2014.

Asked about his future plans at Monza last weekend, Perez said: “I hope that I can be in a position to announce my plans by Singapore and stop with these questions.”

Perez played a key role in initiating the administration proceedings at Force India which led to the team’s takeover by Lawrence Stroll’s consortium. He is expected to be joined at the team by Stroll’s son Lance, potentially before the end of the current season.

However Perez says he has no concerns about potentially having the son of the team’s owner as his team mate.

“I think Lawrence has come here obviously to find a great place for his son but at the same time he’s investing a lot of money, he wants the team to be successful so that means both drivers.

“I do believe in the project. I know the people I’ve worked with everyone here for five years. I wouldn’t be comfortable if I didn’t know the people and so on.

“I know how competitive this team is. I know Lawrence. the plan he has to make this team great and make this investment worth the value. I have no problems with him.”

Rumours during the Italian Grand Prix weekend suggested Perez could return to McLaren, who he drove for in 2013. However yesterday the team handed the final place in its driver line-up to rookie Lando Norris.

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29 comments on “Perez expects to confirm 2019 plans before Singapore”

  1. Where would that leave poor Ocon with his Mercedes backing?

    1. Williams or Playstation

    2. @hoku @johnmilk IKR. Unfortunately, his options, now that Mclaren is out of the question for him, seem to be rather slim since it’s already a known fact that he won’t be continuing at his current team beyond this season (yes, it hasn’t officially been confirmed yet, but he more or less already did so after the qualifying in Belgium when the context of his conversation with Vettel became evident.)

      1. PlayStation it appears to be. What a waste being the tallest driver and having that much talent. Meanwhile we will continue to endure watching the hype that comes with drivers like VER because of his legions of fans.

        1. He could be mercedes first formula e driver lol

    3. @hoku
      Loan him out to STR

  2. Ocon now only has Williams left or Hass but that’s a real stretch now. And there’s Russel also that will most likely be without a seat next year if he his champion, what a waste of talented drivers

    1. Ferrari should take Ocon and stop wasting that seat with Kimi who is old now or rookie LEC. LEC is nowhere near as talented as Ocon. I hate this F1 with the teams needing to have loyalty to their academy drivers like Red Bull.

      Once upon a time F1 teams would get talent whenever they found if.

      1. Really wonder on which basis you state that “LEC is nowhere near Ocon”. For me they are clearly 2 very strong young driver that deserve a shot with a good team to prove themselves.

        1. LEC’s teammate is a nobody. His drives at Sauber are not as eye catching as let’s say Perez. If Ocon was as tall as Perez or LEC he would probably wipe the floor with both of them. this coming from a person that thinks Perez is an underrated talent.

      2. I’m not quite sure how you arrive at the conclusion that Ocon is decisively better than Leclerc. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that one is better than the other. What I will say is that Leclerc is in his rookie season in F1, while Ocon is in his third (2 full seasons), and although Ocon is probably the better of the two now, I would argue that it is quite possible that Leclerc has a higher ceiling. Let’s not forget that Ocon was struggling to beat Perez and Wehrlein in his first one and a half seasons in F1, but has improved vastly since then, so I see no reason why that wouldn’t be the case for Leclerc.

        1. Ocon is only a hand full of points away from beating Perez and he nails Perez to the floor when it comes to qualifying and Perez is good.

  3. i hope haas will send away stupid grosjean and take ocon instead.
    it is really sad there is possibility that we will have stroll, sirotkin, hartley and ericsson on the grid next year instead of ocon and russel.

  4. Dreadful that Perez is staying at Foce India. The strategist somehow miss manages Perez often like he/she did in qualifying this last race. Hopefully the other 400 employees want Perez to succeed.

  5. Everybody must be good drivers except LS or they wood not have got into F1. Just some are better than others. So why not just get rid of bad uns and keep the best. Some have race for years and never got many points. Others get points 80% of the time. If you worked somewhere and just made no diff they wood get rid.

  6. If i was williams, i’d be wanting Ocon and Vandoorne for 2019.

    1. Ocon and Russel

    2. @emu55 Losing Stroll’s and Martini’s money means that Williams is willing to sell their seat to literally anybody that can cough up some 7-figure sponsorship money. Ocon and Vandoorne simply don’t qualify for that.

  7. Driver Predictions:
    Mercedes
    Lewis Hamilton
    Valtteri Bottas

    Ferrari
    Sebastian Vettel
    Kimi Raikkonen

    Red Bull
    Max Verstappen
    Pierre Gasly

    Renault
    Nico Hulkenberg
    Daniel Ricciardo

    Force India
    Sergio Perez
    Lance Stroll

    Haas
    Romain Grosjean
    Kevin Magnussen

    McLaren
    Carlos Sainz
    Lando Norris

    Toro Rosso
    Daniil Kvyat
    Brendon Hartley

    Sauber
    Charles Leclerc
    Marcus Ericsson

    Williams
    Sergey Sirotkin
    Artem Markelov

    1. I hope that doesn’t end up being the Toro Rosso line-up. Haven’t both already been tried and tested by now?

    2. @f1frog I believe I read somewhere that Sirotkin and Markelov are not likely to be teammates, as they have conflicting sponsors.

  8. “I think _____Lawrence has come here obviously to find a great place for his son_____ but at the same time he’s investing a lot of money, he wants the team to be successful so that means both drivers.”

    Freudian slip?

  9. I’m surprised that a manufacturer didn’t scoop up Force India, but I guess big corporations just cannot move as fast as was necessary. Would like to have seen the VW group step in, but the group that has taken over seem to be making all the right noises, by paying off the outstanding debts rather than saying “nothing to do with us”, and pumping in the money. This team, with enough funding could make things a bit more difficult for the top 3 teams in the near future.

    1. for a manufacturer to step in they would need to have an engine ready to stick on the back of the car

      Can you imagene VW, or any VW group brand with a Mercedes engine?

    2. If Honda, who are experts at making motor cycle racing engines, struggle to produce an F1 grade engine, then how do you expect VW to be better?

      1. Wait…what?

        1. @johnmilk

          LoL. I think @drycrust fingers are at 10mbps and brain at 2mbps

  10. Way things are goin your goin to need a rich daddy to get a drive. Wrong and I don’t think I will be watchin it. Bring back the 70s a lot less of you can’t do that.

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