After what was arguably Sergio Perez’s worst home race of all time, rumors of him getting the sack ahead of the upcoming campaign have grown tenfold. Red Bull has been preparing for that reported eventuality for some time now, with one of its junior drivers in pole position to become Max Verstappen’s new teammate.
The driver in question is Liam Lawson, who Marc Priestley feels would be an ideal replacement for the Mexican driver. According to the former McLaren mechanic, “[He] is showing more than enough that he is capable of having a good shot at stepping up to the main Red Bull team in 2025.”
Priestley’s claim came one day after Perez’s Mexico City GP performance, in which he started the race from P18 and ended in P17—last of all runners. “If this is the level that he is going to be able to compete at, there is no way they can take him into 2025…”, Priestly added.
: Red Bull may be close to making a bold decision on Sergio Perez, potentially marking Brazil as his final race with the team. After disappointing performances, Red Bull is reportedly considering a lineup change, with Liam Lawson as the top candidate to replace Perez. Although… pic.twitter.com/Z5LEqc3bT9
— F1 Naija (@f1_naija) October 29, 2024
Priestley also acknowledged that Lawson’s performance at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez was not all that good either. The New Zealander finished one place ahead of Perez and had multiple clashes with the Guadalajara-born driver on the track.
However, Lawson is working to impress the Red Bull bosses and has a clean slate. In fact, in his season debut two weeks ago in Austin, the New Zealander finished P9, earning two valuable points for RB.
As a result, his performance in Mexico would not be too big of a headache for the Faenza-based team as long as he improves in Sao Paolo this weekend. For Perez, on the other hand, the story could be very different.
Perez running out of time
After his disastrous P17 finish in front of home fans, an adamant Perez sounded confident about his future in F1. He insisted that he would be back in Mexico in 2025, representing his country in F1 at the venue that has shown him so much love over the years. Priestley, however, does not see that happening in Red Bull colors.
The 48-year-old’s prediction could very well turn out to be true, as even the top brass at Red Bull seems to be fed up with Perez. After the Mexico City GP, when Team Principal Christian Horner was asked about whether they would sack Perez before the current campaign ended, he replied by describing F1 as a ‘performance-oriented business’.
With only four races left in 2024, it will be interesting to see whether Perez can shift the balance back in his favor. However, it seems extremely unlikely.
