Perez axed due to contract options that "didn't exist" for undroppable Stroll - Szafnauer

Racing Point team principal Otmar Szafnauer has revealed options in Sergio Perez's contract that "didn't exist" in Lance Stroll's deal meant the son of team owner Lawrence was always going to remain on board for 2021.

Stroll will be partnered by Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin next season after the team opted to axe Perez, who now has few options open to him to remain in Formula 1.

Pressed on why he had previously reiterated both drivers were under contract before the announcement surrounding Perez's departure on Wednesday, Szafnauer insisted that "what I said in the past was true."

He added: "They were contracted at that point. Not to go into confidential clauses in our driver contracts because we don't do that, but exactly what I said in the past was true.

"As you can imagine, there are probably some get-out clauses on both sides but anyway, we like to not talk about details of driver contracts."

When put to Szafnauer that Stroll was retained because of his father's influence at the Silverstone-based team, he expanded on the details of each driver's contract to explain why Perez was let go.

"Lance has been with us for a couple of years," said Szafnauer. "He is a young man at 21-years old and his father does own the team.

"When we looked to make a driver change because Sebastian became available, Checo had options in his contract and those options didn't exist for Lance."

Perez remarked on Thursday that he "didn't expect" to be exiled, and claimed he was not kept informed of the proceedings, a comment refuted by Szafnauer.

"We did keep Sergio up to date as well as his manager Julian [Jakobi]," he explained.

"When the decision is a difficult one and it hasn't been made, there isn't much more you can say. We couldn't have said anymore, otherwise we would have been guessing what the future was."

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