Is It Time For Red Bull Racing To Give Sergio Pérez The Axe?

In June 2024, Sergio Pérez  committed to a new two-year extension deal with the reigning Constructors’ champions Red Bull Racing, keeping him with the team until 2025. 

However, his recent slump in form has resulted in the Red Bull hierarchy questioning the Mexican’s pedigree to continue in his role as the second Red Bull driver past the 2024 season finale in Abu Dhabi. 

Just like his first three seasons with the Milton Keynes based outfit, Sergio Pérez had a strong start to the 2024 season, claiming four podium finishes in his first five Grand Prix of the season. 

Since Miami, where he finished third in the Sprint Race followed by a fourth placed finish in the Main race, Pérez has failed to finish inside the top 5 in any of the next 15 races till São Paolo, resulting in Red Bull dropping down to third in the Constructors’ Championship battle with Ferrari 13 points in front, while McLaren sit a further 36 points in front of both of them.  

With 21 rounds completed, the Mexican driver sits in eighth place with just 151 points in the Driver’s Championship while his teammate Max Verstappen (393) is on the verge of winning this very championship with a 62-point lead heading into the Las Vegas Grand Prix. 

Up until the Miami Grand Prix, Pérez had scored 103 points at this point, to Verstappen’s 136. This means his first six races contribute just under 70 percent of his entire season’s points tally.

For context, if we take the last 10 Grand Prix as far as Austria into consideration, Max Verstappen has scored a total of 156 points as Red Bull struggled to keep both McLaren and Ferrari at bay, while Pérez during that time could only manage 33 points. 

This has resulted in rumours emerging from inside the paddock that Red Bull Racing could be on the hunt to find a new driver for their second car for 2025. 

According to numerous reports, VCARB driver Liam Lawson is seen as a potential replacement for the Mexican driver while the rumour mills went into a frenzy when team principal Christian Horner was spotted entering the Williams motorhome with the Briton eyeing young Argentine Franco Colapinto as a prospect for either the second Red Bull seat or a place with VCARB next season. 

With VCARB making the bold call of dropping 8-time Grand Prix winner Daniel Riccardo after the Singapore Grand Prix, Franz Tost roped in young Kiwi Red Bull academy driver Liam Lawson to partner Yuki Tsunoda. In his three races with the sister Red Bull team, Lawson has managed two points finishes, a stable 9th-place in COTA followed by an even stronger 9th-place finish under torrential conditions in São Paolo. 

The same can’t be said for his Japanese teammate Yuki Tsunoda, who has struggled to put in consistent performances despite this being his fourth season with the Italian outfit. 

Franco Colapinto, however, has emerged as a late left-field but credible contender for a seat in F1 next season. 

The 21-year-old Argentine came in as a replacement driver for American Logan Sargeant at Williams Racing, however, he’ll only have a temporary drive with the team as Williams have already signed both Carlos Sainz and Alexander Albon on long-term deals from 2025 onwards. 

Colapinto in his six races with Williams has immediately hit the ground running, scoring five championship points and has been an equal to Alexander Albon on more than one occasion, which really hasn’t been the case at Williams in all these years. 

Thus, it’s no wonder why the 21-year-old has been such a highly sought after commodity in the F1 grid. 

Moreover, trusting young drivers has come back into fashion in F1, with Ferrari junior Oliver Bearman also impressing in his super-sub appearances with Ferrari and Haas, landing a race seat with the latter for F1 2025. Mercedes meanwhile have named their 18-year-old prodigy Kimi Antonelli as Lewis Hamilton’s F1 2025 replacement, while Jack Doohan is set to debut with Alpine and Gabriel Bortoleto with Sauber/Audi F1.

Given the sentiment coming out from the Red Bull paddock, irrespective of how the 34-year-old Sergio Pérez fares during these last three races of the season, it seems imperative that Christian Horner and Helmut Marko would look to give a young driver a run at the second Red Bull seat.