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Lawrence Barretto, F1 Correspondent & Presenter, says…
The driver market was once again the talk of the town as the F1 fraternity reconvened in Budapest – with Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull high on the list of talking points.
The Mexican has endured a challenging six races and lies 137 points and five positions behind team mate and championship leader Max Verstappen. After 12 races, he has the biggest qualifying deficit to his team mate at 0.609s.
In boss Christian Horner’s own words, that kind of form is “unsustainable”, and that has led to speculation Perez’s future is under threat, to the point that he could potentially get dropped mid-season despite having recently signed a new deal to extend his stay into 2025.
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Perez gave such chat short shrift and it should be said that Red Bull’s current position is that keeping Perez is Plan A and they want to find a way to unlock his speed.
However, it is understandable that they are doing their due diligence should his form not improve in the next couple of races.
Is their reserve Liam Lawson the favourite to replace Perez if required? My sources say that isn’t the case and rather it’s all to play for between Lawson, Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda.
I understand Lawson’s test at Silverstone was good but didn’t set the world alight in the way that Ricciardo did when he had a test – albeit of a different kind with more running – last year.
However, Red Bull still rate him and want to keep him in the family. Equally, they want to give Ricciardo a chance to prove it was worth taking a chance on him. And Tsunoda is very much in the mix given his superb run of form this season.
For now, Red Bull are focused on finding a way for Perez to get back to his best before the summer break. If he doesn’t, then they will utilise the planning they’ve done in assessing Lawson, Ricciardo and Tsunoda and react accordingly.
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