Sergio Perez has laughed off rumors suggesting that there have ever been problems with the payments from his backers amid speculation that the Mexican driver is set to be replaced at McLaren for 2014.
Perez joined McLaren at the beginning of the season after a successful two-year spell with Sauber. He retained some of his backing from telecoms giant Telmex whose brand, Claro Video, appears on the rear wing of the team’s MP4-28 car. However, following his confirmation as Lewis Hamilton’s replacement in September of last year, reports suggested that Telmex may have defaulted on their payments. However, the Mexican driver has laughed this off in a recent interview with the official Formula One website.
When asked what the strangest rumor he had read about himself was, Perez said: “There have been so many. Probably the most nutty was that McLaren was not going to sign me because Telmex was not paying on time.”
A similar story has emerged in recent weeks as the team have confirmed they are considering a number of drivers for Perez’s seat in 2014, even if the Mexican driver has produced some good results of late. Youngster Kevin Magnussen is widely though to be his greatest rival for the seat despite his lack of experience, but with the MP4-28 proving to be troublesome for both Perez and teammate Jenson Button, it may be unfair for McLaren to write off the Mexican driver after just one year at Woking.
Perez recently spoke about his excitement for next weekend’s United States Grand Prix, with a large Mexican fanbase expected to attend the race in Austin, Texas.