Daniel Ricciardo has recently hinted that his eyes are on the second Red Bull seat that Sergio Perez is occupying alongside Max Verstappen, putting salt in the Mexican’s wounds. This has come when the Mexican has been going through one of the most turbulent phases of his career, and the British GP qualification has been no better.
Despite starting the year well, Perez has fallen behind drastically. From having identical points, Perez’s gap to Verstappen has increased to 81 points. Furthermore, this lead is also expected to increase after the conclusion of the 2023 British Grand Prix.
Despite the attempts of the 33-year-old to improve, Perez has failed on multiple occasions. The recent Q1 exit at Silverstone added more misery for him. Now, with P16 in the qualification in a dominant Red Bull has fired the speculations even more as all eyes are on Ricciardo, the reserve driver of the Austrian team.
Ricciardo in, Perez out at Red Bull?
Due to the series of underperformance, Perez has faced criticism both from the part of the fans as well as from the higher-ups of Red Bull. Team principal Christian Horner has suggested the former Racing Point driver stop thinking about the title and drive. At the same time, Helmut Marko was unhappy after Perez’s lap-one tussle with Verstappen in Austria.
That said, the Australian driver is even ready for the drive at AlphaTauri if he can find his way out to Red Bull. Admittedly, AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries has also been on the watchlist for not delivering optimum performances.
Wait for the smile 🥹#BritishGP #F1 @danielricciardo pic.twitter.com/fuFNNwIP8D
— Formula 1 (@F1) July 7, 2023
Speaking on this, the Honey Badger told Crash.net, “I’m remaining open-minded. If it’s like, ‘This is you, and you are signing a three-year deal, and that’s the only place you are going to be,’ then no, that’s maybe not the deal I would look for.”
“But if there’s the possibility to be here [Red Bull], the truth is this is where I want to be. I’m not going to weave my way around it,” further asserted the 34-year-old in a report published by Racingnews365. Perez’s dip in form sounds sweet to Ricciardo as he is about to have his Pirelli test at Silverstone with the RB-19.
Perez failed yet again.
Sergio Perez has long been on the wrong side of good performance in qualification, and the British GP qualification wasn’t any better. Despite having the dominant RB-19, Q1 exit was not something Horner and Co. were looking for.
Even though Perez pulled out a good lap, it wasn’t enough in the end, as he was pushed down to P16. However, there was a bit of strategy at play that went wrong for the Mexican driver. As he was the first driver to go out, he encountered a relatively wetter track, which made him lose track time.
Quick pit stop for Checo and out again for one last push! #BritishGP pic.twitter.com/S72yIECr6k
— Oracle Red Bull Racing (@redbullracing) July 8, 2023
Nevertheless, even though Perez still has his drive in Red Bull for now, he has to make sure he solidifies P2 in the driver’s championship, as Red Bull would want that at any cost after losing it out last season. If the 33-year-old fails to do it, according to Joe Saward, Red Bull will try to find another driver alongside Verstappen.
As things stand, the competition behind them is getting stiffer, and with that, the Milton-Keynes-based team needs to make sure they fire with both cars, as only Max Verstappen will not be able to give Red Bull the Constructors’ championship.
