If Red Bull replaces Perez for next season, who will be his replacement?
Home favourite Sergio Perez crashed out of the Mexican Grand Prix at the first corner to leave the thousands of fans who had turned up hoping to cheer their hero onto victory bitterly disappointed. The incident that ended Perez’s race was caused by the Red Bull driver attempting a brave, yet highly unlikely, overtake around the outside of both teammate Max Verstappen and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.
Although no blame can be placed on any of the drivers involved, it does beg the question if the crash was caused by the huge amount of pressure that Perez is under at the Red Bull Racing team.
There is no doubt that Perez would have been fired up to impress at his home race, especially with such passionate support from almost everyone in the stands over the entire Formula One weekend. Perez is also currently dealing with constant rumours that his place in the Red Bull team for next season is under threat. Judging by the nature of the crash that ended his race in Mexico, it seems like the combination of pressure to impress in his home Grand Prix and his desire to end any speculation about his future were the fundamental causes of the incident.
If Red Bull replaces Perez for next season, the question becomes who will be his replacement. An obvious candidate would be former Red Bull driver Daniel Ricciardo.
Ricciardo would provide an experienced and proven race-winning teammate for Max Verstappen, and he is familiar with the Red Bull Racing team, having previously spent five seasons driving for the team from 2014 – 2018, with the last three of those as Verstappen’s teammate. Ricciardo would be seen as a safe option for Red Bull to replace Perez with as not only does he have great experience in Formula One and has proven himself as a capable race winner, but he is also at the stage of his career when he would most likely be happy not provide any threat to Verstappen’s status. Ricciardo did his prospects of promotion to the full Red Bull team no harm in Mexico as he finished in 7th place to achieve Alpha Tauri’s best result of the 2023 season.
The negative of replacing Perez with Ricciardo would be that it would be viewed by many as a like-for-like change, as Perez already provides an experienced backup to Verstappen. There would unlikely be any change to the overall results for Red Bull as a team, and this would surely only be a short-term solution to the problem. So, an alternative option for Red Bull would be the highly rated Liam Lawson, who is at the opposite end of his career to both Perez and Ricciardo.
Lawson would be an easy move to make as he is a Red Bull contracted junior driver and does not currently have a Formula One drive for next season. The young New Zealander recently impressed whilst standing in at Alpha Tauri for four races as Ricciardo recovered from a hand injury. The highlight of this brief four-race stint was a 10th-place finish at the Singapore Grand Prix. Lawson’s performances led to many people saying he should be given the Alpha Tauri seat full-time for the 2024 season, and there was widespread dismay when he was overlooked for this in favour of Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
The risk to putting Lawson straight into the full Red Bull team alongside Max Verstappen would be that this has been tried and has failed in the past. Previously, Red Bull paired both Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon with Max Verstappen at the early stages of both driver’s careers with limited success. Both drivers were highly rated at the time when they joined Red Bull, just like Lawson is now. However, both were quickly and harshly dismissed when the high expectations placed on them were not immediately matched.
The fear would be Lawson’s career could face a significant setback if he joined Red Bull too soon. However, it must be mentioned that both Gasly and Albon have successfully bounced back from their disappointing spells at Red Bull and are now impressing again in Formula One with the Alpine and Williams teams.
A final option for Red Bull to replace Perez would be to look for the best available driver to bring the most likely chance of further success to the team. However, this would also be a potentially controversial move as it would also end Max Verstappen’s current number 1 status, and he would likely face a challenge for race victories and World Championships from his own teammate.
The most obvious candidate to join Max Verstappen as an equal teammate would be if Red Bull could get Lando Norris out of his McLaren contract.
This would be a high-risk move by Red Bull as it would most likely upset Max Verstappen if he lost his #1 driver status at the team and had a teammate constantly challenging and threatening him for race wins. Having two top drivers challenging in the same team has rarely proved successful and without controversy in Formula One. Famous inter-team fall-outs in the past have included Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost at McLaren in the 1980s and, more recently, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg at Mercedes. In all instances where this has happened, at least one of the drivers has had to leave the team involved, and not before a major fall-out and controversial racing incident has occurred.
The likelihood is that Sergio Perez will be contracted to Red Bull for the 2024 season, and he will remain on the team as Max Verstappen’s teammate. However, there can be no doubt the constant rumours regarding his future are affecting Perez’s performances, which in turn is costing Red Bull points in the Constructors championship.
If Red Bull do decide to make a change, there is no shortage of options available to them.
