Sergio Perez said he had no indication from Racing Point that he will not continue beyond 2020 until team boss Lawrence Stroll called him on Wednesday.
Perez, who had a contract until the end of 2022, confirmed his departure on Wednesday evening before Racing Point announced Sebastian Vettel’s arrival on Thursday morning. Perez said the news came out of the blue.
“Basically I got a confirmation yesterday,” Perez said. “Nobody told me anything but I already knew and figured out a couple of things.
“The final confirmation came yesterday. And it’s fine — seven years with the team. Everything has a beginning and also an end and we still have nine races to make each other very proud.”
When asked how he found out, he said: “I got a call from Lawrence. He told me yesterday that they are going in a different direction.”
Perez had been consistent in his belief that he would be driving for the team in 2021, despite being aware of the rumours about Vettel.
“Yeah, that was the feedback I was getting that everything was looking… that the team wanted to keep me and so on. There were some discussions in the background about contracts and so on which I am not willing to disclose because I think those things should remain between the team and myself.
“But there were a couple of things in the contract that we went through and they just officially told me yesterday that I am not continuing. I didn’t expect that but it’s how it is.”
Perez said he has no plan B yet and his F1 options are limited, with Haas and Alfa Romeo looking like the only logical candidates if he wants to stay in the series.
Asked if he was disappointed with the timing of Racing Point’s decision, he said: “I wouldn’t say disappointed in that regard because obviously I understand the team has the negotiations going on and they took probably longer than I thought.
“Probably a bit more clarity would have helped regarding my future as well because then I would have looked for a plan B, which probably wouldn’t have changed anything. I’ve been long enough in this business… it’s part of this crazy world called F1.”