With Sergio Perez‘s Red Bull future in doldrums, the Mexican racing ace is being tipped to be dropped by Red Bull at the end of the 2024 season. F1 experts predict a frenzied silly season on the horizon. One name that is being floated as Perez’s potential replacement is Nico Hulkenberg.
Perez is going to be out of his Red Bull contract at the end of this year. With chances of it being renewed slim, the panelists over at The Race discussed who could be replacing him. While Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson are being billed as prime candidates to take up that second Red Bull seat, Hulkenberg has been thrown in the mix as well. The German is being billed as a suitable option for the Milton Keynes-based team given his decade worth of experience and handiness as a dependable driver.
Hulkenberg has showcased his supreme skills behind the wheel of an F1 car, often being let down by the car he is in, in terms of results. However, experts theorized that as he was considered for that second Bulls’ seat before Perez appeared on the scene, the team would be eyeing him up to now fill the Mexican’s seat.
With a solid top 10 qualifying average over the course of the 2023 season, Hulkenberg comfortably outmatched his Haas teammate, Kevin Magnussen. What’s more, he got the team’s best result during the 2023 Austrian GP Sprint Race – 6th.
Contrasting fortunes for Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez in 2023
While Hulkenberg shined in a draggy Haas, Sergio Perez struggled to keep pace with Max Verstappen in arguably the fastest car in F1 history. Trailing by a whopping 290 points at the end of the season, Perez took a lot of flak from the media, his own team and the fans for a squalid showing last year.
While Christian Horner has ensured the public that Perez’s seat for 2024 is not at threat, if the latter’s poor run of form continues, he could be replaced mid-season by the likes of Daniel Ricciardo.
With this in mind, Red Bull gave him a seat with AlphaTauri last year. Hs performance during a Pirelli-mandated tire test prompted the team to sack Nyck de Vries mid-season to hand the reigns of the AT04 to Ricciardo instead.
His performances impressed both Christian Horner and Helmut Marko. Ricciardo, however, will have to step up big time if he is to replace Perez this season. As for the Guadalajara-born driver, 2024 will be the year he fights for his F1 future.
