Since the midway point of the 2023 season, several reports have claimed that Red Bull may replace Sergio Perez. Despite that, he was awarded a contract extension that will keep him with the team till at least the end of the 2025 season. However, the reigning champions also made contingency plans and put Daniel Ricciardo in its sister team in case Perez suffers another massive dip in performance. That also hasn’t seemed to work out in their favor so far as Ricciardo has been struggling. And Ricciardo also seems to agree that it is not a given that he will replace Perez.
When asked if he will be the one to replace Perez, the Australian replied, “Do I have any proof that I’ll be anywhere else? I do not. Crazy things happen, but I’m certainly not in a place to say that or think that, or predict that. I’ll try and keep doing my thing.”
2. @danielricciardo: “The trend of the sport is getting bigger. It’s becoming more Hollywood, so to speak, in terms of the profile the sport has. And also the narrative that runs with the sport now is certainly more Hollywood in terms of it’s so unpredictable…”
— Adam Cooper (@adamcooperF1) July 7, 2024
Ricciardo has failed to live up to the expectations at VCARB so far. He’s largely been outperformed by his teammate Yuki Tsunoda during their time together.
This is an unfavorable scenario, especially for someone being considered for a promotion. So, instead of discussing the possibility of replacing Perez, Ricciardo highlighted that his focus is on improving himself. Similarly to the Australian, Perez also seems to have a similar focus moving forward.
Perez is putting all his energy into bettering himself
The pressure keeps on mounting on Perez. Right after his extension, his qualifying troubles have returned. He’s been unable to consistently put his car in a competitive place to fight for a good points-scoring finish.
This is an extremely unfavorable scenario for Red Bull as the reigning champions desperately need him to score points. However, after his latest mistake in Silvertone during qualifying, Perez claimed that he did not do much wrong.
He said, “Cold tires, and it was completely soaked of water outside of the track, so I just ended up going in the gravel, couldn’t stop the car, couldn’t go straight, very unfortunate incident.” He then made it clear that the pressure he is under currently has nothing to do with the mistake he made.
“No, no, no, no, that has nothing to do with it. I’m fully focused on my job. I’m fully focused on getting the performance out of myself,” he added.
Qualifying has been his Achilles heel since the 2022 season. The poor output over one lap often ends up hampering his entire race. So, if the Mexican doesn’t want to face Red Bull’s ruthlessness, he needs to turn things around as soon as possible. If he does not improve, Red Bull does indeed have several options to replace him.
