Villeneuve: Stop saying Perez is out next race, he has a contract

Perez's poor form compared to his Red Bull teammate and 2024 F1 World Champion elect Max Verstappen. The stats are telling; the Dutch ace has scored 393 points over the past 21 rounds, while Perez has only collected 151 points.

This gulf in performance, coupled with Perez's woes in qualifying, prompts constant speculation about his future. To the point that some reports claimed Sao Paulo would be his last Grand Prix. Which Red Bull denied. But that did not stop a barrage of rumors suggesting Williams underkind Franco Colapinto was on Helmut Marko's shopping list.

Speaking to the media team at Grosvenor Sport, 1997 F1 World Champion Villeneuve said, “Colapinto deserves a race seat. But there might not be one available. It's very simple. Everybody is saying he will take the Perez seat.

"But Perez is there, and he's under contract. It’s been 10 months now that people have been saying Perez is out at the next race. Stop saying it. He has a contract.“ He brings sponsorship and stability to the team.

"Verstappen is happy with him. And who knows how much of the difference is because Perez is a bit lost right now, which can happen, or just Verstappen being so amazing? So put another driver in there who doesn't do any better; what have you achieved?

"They know internally because they have other drivers with the Red Bull junior team. The purpose of the Red Bull Junior team is not to put Colapinto with the big team; it's to build the drivers for the bigger team," explained Villeneuve.

Furthermore, Red Bull has a rich vein of 'juniors' they have been 'harvesting' for years, at great expense to develop drivers for the senior team. Currently, the likes of Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are competing to be next in line when a seat opens up.

In the RBR Junior ranks, the likes of Isack Hadjar, Pepe Martins, and Oliver Goethe are also making a case to be considered for the top flight. Where does Colapinto fit into the equation? Is he worth breaking Red Bull's well-planned, massively funded driver development program?

Villeneuve continued: "That has always been congested like that. It has always been tough for drivers to emerge in F1. The big difference is that drivers survive in F1 much longer than they used to. That makes it tougher. There are fewer drivers that get a chance, even for a few races, as used to be the case.

“I would say if he gets his chance, Colapinto will make the biggest impression in F1 out of all the youngsters because of his maturity and his approach. My money would be on him. With what we have seen, [Oliver] Bearman has been super quick as well," reckoned Villeneuve.

"One guy who is making waves is Gabriel Bortoleto," added Villeneuve, of Sauber's 2025 F1 rookie. "He has been great in F2. Let’s see if he makes the jump like Bearman and Colapinto. I don't know if Bernie Ecclestone gave Bortoleto a hand, but [Fernando] Alonso is his manager, so that probably had a huge effect.

"And if you think Alonso, then Flavio is not far behind," concluded Villeneuve, referencing the tight relationship between Spain's double-F1 World Champion and his mentor Flavio Briatore.