Sergio Perez’s Red Bull future has become a weekly sitcom with new twists in the tale coming at every race weekend. On merit, the Mexican is likely to lose his seat after the 2024 season concludes as his performances in both qualifying and the races have been rather abysmal. While team principal Christian Horner has lately criticized the 34-year-old, he again switched his tone to back him and revealed that Perez’s future is in his hands.
“He knows the pressures of this business. We’re going to give him all the support we can until the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. What he decides to do is going to be his decision,” Horner said to Sky Sports F1 after the Qatar GP concluded.
Christian Horner on Perez: “He knows the pressures of this business, we’re going to give him all the support we can until the chequered flag in Abu Dhabi. What he decides to do is going to be his decision”
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Horner has been one of the few backers for the six-time Grand Prix winner in what has been a forgettable season with no race wins and a handful of podiums since the start of the season. Since then, it has been a disappointing run of awful qualifying performances, no podiums or top-five finishes, things that have also cost Red Bull the constructors’ championship lead.
The same trend of Q1 exits, pointless races, and troubles with the car continued in Qatar for Perez. He bowed out in SQ1 to nullify his chances of scoring points in the sprint race. While the #11 driver somehow made it to Q3 in Grand Prix qualifying, his good work again came undone on Sunday night as he spun off and lost his engine.
Perez fell out of the points while his teammate Max Verstappen won the race. With the Dutchman getting his ninth win of the season, Perez’s points deficit to him in the drivers’ standings increased further — 277 points behind in P8.
LAP 41 / 57
PEREZ OUT!
The Red Bull spins off before the restart and loses drive, and it’s game over. #F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/yBO0NMStcD
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 1, 2024
With increased speculation around Perez’s potential exit, there have been several contenders who could replace the Mexican driver. However, Perez is staunch in his claim that he will continue as a Red Bull driver next year.
Who can replace Perez at Red Bull?
The two Red Bull prodigies — Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson — have emerged as the primary candidates to replace Perez at Red Bull. However, Lawson is more of a serious candidate with Red Bull roping him in urgently to replace Daniel Ricciardo before the US GP this season.
Tsunoda has been doing his best by performing consistently, but hasn’t been able to convince the top brass at Milton Keynes. Amid this tussle at RB, the name of Franco Colapinto is also in the race for a seat at either of Red Bull’s teams.
However, his recent crash-prone form may hurt his chances, and even Helmut Marko is not singing happy tunes about the Williams driver. Marko said that Colapinto isn’t any better at this stage than Tsunoda or Lawson. Hence, Red Bull may struggle to find an adequate replacement for Perez even if they decide to sack him.
