VETTEL MAKES RACING POINT HIS NEW HOME
F1 is not a sport which runs on sentiment – and proof of that was delivered last month by Racing Point. Less than a year into a three-year contract it has dropped Sergio Pérez, the driver who set in motion the legal action which enabled Lawrence Stroll’s consortium to swoop in and buy the troubled team mid-way through 2018.
Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel will take Pérez’s place, a move that has been the subject of speculation for some time. Vettel has been on the market since Ferrari announced in May it would not be renewing his contract next year. Racing Point, which will rebrand as Aston Martin (also owned by a consortium headed by Stroll) in 2021, was Vettel’s only realistic option given its ambitions – and its background of being a respectable midfield competitor on a fraction of the budget of its rivals.
Stroll will no doubt have found this difficult to resist: a multiple world champion (albeit one whose star has waned), still motivated given the right car, and with few credible other options on the table. GP Racing understands Vettel has agreed to a modest salary from the team, believed to be in the region of $1.5m, with bonuses paid according to results. It’s believed he will be paid separately to the tune of around $5m by the Aston Martin automobile company for acting as a product ambassador.
This deal makes Vettel relatively affordable, and was likely to be the clincher. Pérez is not only hugely popular within the team, for which he has driven since 2014, he brings sponsorship from the Mexican telecommunications giant Telmex as well as others. It was Pérez who in mid-2018 began the legal proceedings that triggered the administration process which enabled Stroll to acquire the team’s assets. Former primary shareholder Vijay Mallya had until that point being resisting offers to buy the team, despite the prospect of a winding-up order over unpaid debts.
It is believed that Stroll’s fellow shareholders in the Aston Martin road car business were keen to have a driver of Vettel’s pedigree and stature representing the brand. And while Pérez is only in the first year of a three-year contract signed last season, that document contained opt-out clauses which enabled the team to end it early. Since the other seat at Racing Point is occupied by Stroll’s son Lance, Pérez was always the likeliest candidate to go.
“Lance has been with us for a couple of years,” said team principal Otmar Szafnauer. “He’s a young man at 21 years old and, yes, his father does own the team, so when we looked to make a driver change, because Sebastian became available, it would have been Checo. There are options in his contract and those options didn’t exist for Lance.”