How Ricciardo and Verstappen are keeping Sergio Perez at Red Bull

18:00, 12 Mar 2024
5 Comments

For a year, Sergio Perez heard the same question asked every week: 'Was he afraid of losing his seat at Red Bull Racing?' Just two races into the 2024 season and the questions have calmed down. Thanks, partially, to Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda ánd Max Verstappen.

That spin in the closing stages of the Grand Prix in Saudi Arabia could have been as well. Daniel Ricciardo was already driving a race to soon forget, far down the backstretch, and with a rookie mistake, the Australian completed his misery. As was not a top performance a week earlier, when he needed the help of his Visa Cash App RB to pass teammate Yuki Tsunoda. Thus, the eight-time race winner then finished 13th, instead of 14th.

For now, Ricciardo is not making a strong impression. Instead of leading the Italian team, it looks like the Daniel from his time with McLaren again: violently out of shape and simply too slow. Helmut Marko already hinted that Ricciardo will have to perform a lot better if he is to be considered for a renewed place at Red Bull Racing in 2025. Indeed, that is the ultimate goal for the now 34-year-old veteran.

Tsunoda makes little impression

Yuki Tsunoda is also not yet making an indelible impression this season. The Japanese driver stood out the most with his tirade during the Bahrain Grand Prix, the moment he was ordered to let Ricciardo pass him. Anyway, the Japanese driver has never been a big contender for a seat at the sister team, but with excellent performances Red Bull could not have ignored him. At the moment, there is surely no one seriously considering a promotion for Tsunoda.

Meanwhile, there is the uncertainty over Max Verstappen's future at Red Bull Racing. As GPblog reported yesterday, the Verstappen camp is still emphatically keeping open the option for the three-time world champion to find accommodation elsewhere after this season. In that case, Mercedes are the Dutchman's most logical new employer.

And Perez? Who is currently quietly doing his thing, exactly what is expected of him. The Mexican finished second twice - albeit at an appropriate distance from Verstappen - as Red Bull Racing demands of the Mexican. If the Mexican does manage to continue this line this year, there should be no reason for the Austrian team not to renew his expiring contract.

Sergio Perez has peace in his mind

For Perez, it is no doubt pleasing to see that his intended rivals for the seat - Ricciardo and Tsunoda - are not making a convincing impression, at least not to the extent that a move to Red Bull makes sense. Moreover, Verstappen's uncertain future makes Perez's position much stronger. Red Bull must be looking forward to sidelining the Mexican (already), with the real possibility that the team will end up having to look for two drivers for 2025.

Of course, a lot of drivers enter the market after the current season, they are not of the calibre of Leclerc, Hamilton, Norris or Piastri. One - with deference - lesser god in a Red Bull is surely still manageable for the Austrians, but with two it becomes a lot harder to achieve the sky-high goals.

Perez is currently in a luxury position. Nobody expects him to beat Verstappen, neatly finishing second every time is more than enough. Given the form of the others and the uncertainty with Verstappen, that could just be enough for another year with the world constructors' champions. Fair enough: for Red Bull, there is currently not a smarter choice than the Mexican.

5 Comments
Jason Dean 13 March 2024 at 06:57+ 2

Carlos Sainz can challenge the Max, given an opportunity in the second Red Bull seat., He is super consistent, unlike Perez.

dayDrivver 13 March 2024 at 16:00+ 407

There are burn bridges between Sainz and Max, there was an a entourage fight that got so visceral that they let go Sainz off the entire red bull project (despite being a decent good driver) and was send to "rot" at Renault, somehow got his second air teaching Norris how to drive an F1 car but calling for a seat alongside Max for the next season is bold. Sainz is going to end in either Mercedes or a B-team like Sauber/Kick/Whatever

dayDrivver 12 March 2024 at 20:33+ 407

There are options but not for the caliber of a world-champion team, people easy forget how Albon and Gasly were no up to the task, not because they weren't doing his job but because they were going down in a never ending spiral, not able to bounce back. These guy lost their manhood to Max and they never got it back. Checo has been there and still finds a way to drove "good race" from time to time, this is the key difference he drives "okay", the feedback for the engineers help a lot the other side of the garage, and Max learned a lot from Checo on how to keep his tires in good condition and improve Perez own technique in just 1 GP (it took Max only one loss at Baku 2023 to improve himself beyond what Checo is capable of). In the end the story of checo head is in the hands however ends being the boss... if its Marko he will probably try to please Max and put Hulkenberg alongside, if it is Horner he will push Perez, if it somebody else maybe they will pair him along Kimi Antonelli just for the lols.

RET 12 March 2024 at 22:24+ 2686

Haha Kimi...that was good. ?

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Mech Engineer 12 March 2024 at 23:10+ 55040

Put Antonelli in a RB and he will win the championship in his rookie season. The Prema was performing like an Alpine at Bahrain, but he still out qualified and beat his very highly rated team mate in Bearman in the race and scored a point. We saw an improvement in Jeddah and we shall see from next race in Melb or from Imola onwards, what he is capable of in the car, and shows why he has won 4 championships in the past 2 years as a rookie in each of them.