Amid the frenzy of Perez's home race, and constant speculation about his contract, the 33-year-old knew that a good performance at Mexico City would help silent doubts about his future and prove that hints of a turnaround in form from Austin were real.
But a win-or-bust attitude at Turn 1 backfired as he clashed with Charles Leclerc, was launched down the escape road, and suffered too much damage to keep racing.
That exit, with Lewis Hamilton later finishing behind Max Verstappen, once again saw Perez's second-place position in the drivers’ championship come under threat – further triggering talk that Red Bull may not see out his contract into 2024.
Those whispers became open talk the day after the race, though, when Spanish journalist Albert Fabrega dropped a cryptic tweet that something big could be happening in the paddock.
“I don't want to believe the rumour that they have told me now in the paddock. No,” he wrote in Spanish on X (formerly known as Twitter).
The absence from Fabrega of any information, context or explanation for how reliable the rumour was lit the fuse on F1’s rumour mill. His tweet was viewed more than 11 million times.
With Fabrega being Spanish, people suspected that it was almost certainly related to Fernando Alonso. Had the Spaniard grown frustrated with Aston Martin’s fall from form this year and decided that now was the right time to retire from F1?
Or could Fabrega’s piece of gossip be intertwined with Perez’s own future. Many asked was the Mexican about to get dropped, and replaced by Alonso for 2024?
Source: Autosport