Perez: A lot of drivers would love to have my seat

Tsunoda, over the course of the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend, insisted that Red Bull Racing should give him Perez's seat should the latter be fired, as reports claim that Liam Lawson may be in the running to become Max Verstappen's next teammate.

Facing the media, including GrandPrix247, in Budapest on Thursday, Perez was asked about Tsunoda's statement, he commented: "Well, a lot of drivers out there would love to have my seat. You know, it's obvious, you know.

"It's one of the top seats and it's ok for Yuki to want to move up," he added. "I think it's just normal, you know, when you are in a low, you want to move up. That's just part of the nature of the sport. I got nothing against it. I think it's good to have high ambitions in the sport."

Red Bull are under pressure in the 2024 Formula 1 Constructers' Championship, as McLaren and Mercedes have closed the performance gap with the RB20 no longer the dominant car that started the season, with Perez's struggles and lack of points' scoring now hurting the team more.

Asked whether that puts more pressure on him, Perez said: "It was the same last year, you know, where I had to deliver. I had to make sure that it was the first year in the history of the team to finish one, two.

"There's always pressure, different sort of pressures, but at the end of the day it's always the same. You have to deliver everyone here if we all have to deliver. But like I say, you know, I will look at my season when I'm in Abu Dhabi and see what sort of season I had," he explained.

The consensus in the F1 paddock is that Red Bull will be making a decision about Perez's future over the summer break, if not before, which makes this weekend's Hungarian GP and the upcoming Belgian GP crucial weekends for the 34-year-old driver to deliver convincing results.

However Perez is adamant that is not the case, he said: "Nothing new. It's another two races for us that we want to get back to our top form.

"That's the main priority for me, for the team. I was back in the factory over the week and that is the main priority for us really, to get back to the form we had a couple of races ago. That's really it.

There's nothing related to that," he continued weighing in on the reported deadline. "Obviously, I cannot talk about my contract, but it's nothing related to that. What I said is that the next two races are very important for me. I want to go on holiday with a good spirit and I think it's good for the side of my garage to go on a good spirit. I wasn't talking about anything else.

"I'm fully focused and fully deliver and I will be here, and I will be here again next year, and that's nothing different. I'm just fully committed to myself," Perez concluded.