Sergio Perez has to perform in the season’s final sprint – otherwise Red Bull might soon rethink and jump on the bandwagon of giving youth a chance
The 2024 Formula One season will consist of six more races – for Sergio Perez, these could be six decisive races to prove to the team bosses that he still deserves his place in the Red Bull cosmos.
Daniel Ricciardo, who was shown the door at the Racing Bulls and replaced by Liam Lawson, recently experienced how quickly things can happen. Perez, meanwhile, was allowed to remain on the A-team, but the Mexican is no less vulnerable before the end-of-season push, because Red Bull urgently needs a stronger second driver alongside world champion Max Verstappen due to the stronger competition.
In other words, the constant pressure from Red Bull’s opponents, above all McLaren, is also increasing the pressure on Perez to finally perform better again. The team, which used to be so dominant, has long since lost the top position in the Constructors’ Championship and is even at risk of falling back to third place behind Ferrari (only 34 points behind).
Given that the various positions at the top make a financial difference of around nine million dollars in the final reckoning, it is a precarious situation, as Red Bull team boss Christian Horner also knows: “We urgently need answers”,
Horner thinks of Hamilton/Leclerc and Norris/Piastri
“I think, if you look at our opponents, Ferrari will be strong next year with Hamilton and Leclerc. And McLaren also has a strong pairing with Norris and Piastri,” says the Red Bull team boss, whose conclusion is: ‘We have to make sure with our drivers that there is no big gap between the two, because you simply can’t afford that.’
But the gap could hardly be much clearer than it is at Red Bull at the moment: Verstappen has 331 points compared to Perez’s 144 – most recently, the Mexican lost a large number of points again in Baku due to a late collision with Carlos Sainz. Although Lawson has grabbed Ricciardo’s cockpit for now, Perez’s could be next if the New Zealander performs well in the season finale.
The fact that the trend in Formula 1 is moving towards younger drivers again for 2025 is no surprise after the impressive recent performances of rookies like Oliver Bearman or Franco Colapitno – and even more so at Red Bull, which has always been keen to promote strong juniors, as motorsport consultant Helmut Marko emphasizes.
Marko is convinced: “You can rely on young people”
“The Grand Prix appearances of Oliver Bearman and especially Franco Colapinto have shown that the young are ready for the promotion and the old philosophy of some team bosses, that you can only promote drivers with three or four years of experience to a top team, is outdated,” writes the Austrian in his column for speedweek.
As an example, Marko cites the Silver Arrows, of all teams, who recently chose 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli as Hamilton’s successor for the 2025 season: “Mercedes has proven that with its driver decision, just as Red Bull Racing has done several times in the past. So you can bet on youth. It’s a certain risk, but it’s manageable and worth it,” said Marko.
