{"id":56015,"date":"2025-08-09T19:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56015\/"},"modified":"2025-08-09T19:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-08-09T19:15:06","slug":"sergio-perez-makes-major-change-as-f1-comeback-rumours-ramp-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/56015\/","title":{"rendered":"Sergio Perez makes major change as F1 comeback rumours ramp up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Mexican racer Sergio Perez may not be actively competing in Formula 1 in 2025, but all eyes are on the former Red Bull driver as rumours mount that he\u2019s planning a big return for the F1 2026 season.<\/p>\n<p>But according to Xavi Martos, Perez\u2019s former physiotherapist, has pointed to a change in the driver\u2019s management that seems to point directly to a return.<\/p>\n<p>Does Sergio Perez\u2019s new management signal an F1 return?<\/p>\n<p>Thirty-five-year-old Sergio Perez isn\u2019t quite ready to hang up the helmet just yet, his former trainer Xavi Martos alleges.<\/p>\n<p>Perez got his start in Formula 1 back in 2011, moving from Sauber to McLaren to Force India\/Racing Point before finally making the swap to Red Bull Racing for the 2021 season.<\/p>\n<p>The Mexican driver partnered up with Max Verstappen as the Dutch driver kicked off an era of dominance that saw him secure four consecutive World Championships \u2014 during which time Perez served as a reliable second driver.<\/p>\n<p>More Formula 1 analysis from PlanetF1.com:<\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/ugliest-f1-liveries-21st-century\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">8 of the ugliest looking liveries on F1 cars this century<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\ud83d\udc49\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/ranking-all-the-new-signings-of-f1-2025\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ranked: All the F1 driver moves made for the F1 2025 season<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But in 2024, rumours began to emerge that Sergio Perez was on the outs despite having inked a contract renewal in the early stages of the year. His performance took a steep downturn, and when the checkered flag flew on the year, Red Bull announced that Perez would indeed be sidelined in favor of young driver Liam Lawson.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that, Perez has been pegged for a potential Formula 1 return in 2026. The incoming Cadillac F1 team is said to be interested in signing him \u2014 though his name has also been linked to the likes of Alpine.<\/p>\n<p>And Perez\u2019s former trainer Xavi Martos has pinpointed one thing that \u201cI think people haven\u2019t noticed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI watched as a spectator and people have never said it,\u201d Martos said on the Duralavita podcast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCheco has a new manager \u2014 I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve read it. He had Julian [Jakobi], now he has another one.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wonder: Why does he have a new manager?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perez had been represented by manager Julian Jakobi for years. It was Jakobi who negotiated the ultimately ill-fated Red Bull contract extension. Now, though, Martos alleges the two have parted ways.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that answers everything,\u201d Martos said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you don\u2019t want to stop driving, you don\u2019t hire a new manager. At least, that wouldn\u2019t occur to me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Perez himself mentioned the swap back in June, confirming that he had signed Khalil Beschir, a Lebanese driver turned motorsport manager and consultant.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to go back because I don\u2019t want to end my career like this,\u201d Perez said in the Desde el Paddock podcast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ll go back if it\u2019s worth paying the price to be in F1.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read next:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.planetf1.com\/features\/max-verstappen-f1-team-mates-ranking-the-best-to-worst\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ranking Max Verstappen\u2019s 7 F1 team-mates from best to worst<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mexican racer Sergio Perez may not be actively competing in Formula 1 in 2025, but all eyes are&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":56016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,44,2072,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-56015","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-formula-1","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-f1","11":"tag-formula-1","12":"tag-formula1","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-sergio-perez","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=56015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}