Force India to confirm new F1 deal for Perez

Sergio Perez looks set to remain in F1 for some more seasons as Fox journalist, Luis Manuel Lopez, has claimed that Force India are working on securing him a new deal. His contract with the Silverstone team ends at the end of this season.

Lopez was attending an event in Mexico, where he revealed that he spoke to Perez, who confirmed the same. “I just talked to Checo. He confirmed that there are only days left for his automatic extension at Force India.”

Force India were under the sword as they looked set to be shut down after running out of funds but Canadian businessman, Lawrence Stroll, led a consortium of investors to buy out the team. It was later revealed that Perez himself had initiated court proceedings against the team.

Now that his father owns the team, Lance Stroll looks set to join Force India, which means that either of current drivers, Perez or Ocon, had to make way for him. This new piece of information reveals their preference to be Perez.

However, Ocon was seemingly not worried about his own future, as he revealed that he was confident of Mercedes securing a drive for him. He is part of their junior driver programme.

Those words may ring true after all, as it is rumoured that McLaren are looking to loan Ocon from Mercedes to partner their confirmed driver, Carlos Sainz Jr. for next year. Sainz himself was confirmed by McLaren only yesterday.

McLaren are not short of options for their vacant F1 seat though. They may still retain current driver, Stoffel Vandoorne, or may even promote their junior driver, Lando Norris, to a race seat.

Ideally, they’d like for Norris to gain some experience in F1 before giving him the seat but their only option will be to loan him out to another team on the grid.