Why at least one Red Bull F1 driver is getting dropped

five into three just won't go in the fight to land Red Bull F1 seats in 2025 and within that equation is the inevitable outcome that one current Red Bull driver will be dropped this year both Red Bull's main team and its second outfit have key roles to play in the F1 Silly Season that has started unusually early in 2024 outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos sence is now f1's most El Bachelor but there are several other drivers out of contract others Under Pressure including Rebel's own Uber popular Daniel Ricardo and Le two hot shot rookies looking to step onto the grid fulltime then you throw in a plum seat at Red Bull Racing a less Plum but still pretty Plum seat at Mercedes and a host of other vacancies including drives for the soon toe Audi works team that's exciting but has an awful lot to prove how that shakes out is going to be massively influenced by what Red Bull does and two recent Revelations mean we now all know exactly what its choices are which guarantees disappointment is on the cards for some of the drivers in contention the lineups for the two Red Bull F1 teams have been the subject of constant speculation this season with even world champion Max fen's position at Red Bull Racing questioned at times Mercedes boss Toto wolf certainly wants everyone to believe that vapen really could leave but it's the identity of his teammate and who will drive for Red Bull's second team that stand as the bigger unknowns as the incumbent Rebel racing driver Sergio Perez has made a great case for being retained for a fifth season after an an impressive start to 2024 Red Bull's other contracted drivers Daniel Ricardo Yuki soda and Liam Lawson are all theoretically contenders too as team principal Christian hoer puts it all of them are contracted as red bull racing drivers they're just loaned out to the sister team but now we have the clearest indication yet that Rebel is entertaining the idea of going outside its current pool although not that far outside it given it's a former Red Bull junr and Toro Roso driver who is of Interest outgoing Ferrari driver Carlos signs has seed on red Bull's radar for a little while now and it actually goes beyond that according to Red Bull Motorsport adviser helmet Marco talks have already started between the two parties signs is being replaced by lwis Hamilton at Ferrari in 2025 and is the best free agent on the market with lots of options according to Marco science's best offer currently comes from Audi the German manufacturer is taking over the Saba team ahead of its Works entry to F1 in 2026 and we know it's courted signs for the past year it's allegedly offering him a lucrative deal that Marco claims Red Bull cannot or will not match SS would be an excellent recruit for Red Bull given he's proven himself as a multiple race winner at Ferrari and performed well against charl L Clair having previously compared strongly to vapen at Tor Roso and Lando Norris at McLaren and reuniting with his old to Roso teammate V stappen obviously appeals to signs given Red Bull's domination but any potential interest in recruiting signs needs to be judged alongside perz making such a good case for being kept on and this makes us doubt whether de signs he actually a top Red Bull Target or just a Handy Backup all the while he's still a free agent Red Bull making signs its number one choice would make a lot more sense if this was say the middle of 2023 when Perez was completely out of form and wasting that second red bolt more often than not but that's not the case in 2024 Perez is statistically worse off than 12 months ago when he won two of the first five races and was pushing the narrative that he saw himself as a championship Challenger there are definitely factors in his favor now though he's been very consistent apart from Ironically in Australia where the sten's problem did open the door to a victory being beaten by Lando Norris in China was disappointing as was a clear deficit to fenal weekend but the final result was also clearly influenced by mid-race safety cars most encouraging for Red Bull is that Perez's qualifying form has been much more convincing than it was for most of 2023 he stuck it on the front row alongside for stappen at the last two events being third fastest on two other occasions and his worst qualifying performance is fifth in Bahrain as while a grid penalty meant he started sixth in Melbourne he was actually third fastest there Perez hasn't been particularly outstanding and arguably not even any better than his Peaks have always been at Red Bull but as a run of races this has been a more assured more convincing start and Marco says this is clearly his best season for the team yet Marco even went as far as calling him certainly the best option for 2025 if these performances continue so hang on why is signs even in the picture then and why when Perez said he expected to have his future sorted and announced soon did herna turn around and clarify that Red Bull's in no hurry and would fix things later in the year well the simple answer is that Red Bull's probably just playing games and will basically string Perez along to try to keep him on it last year Perez faded quite quickly after his Bright Start seemingly getting caught up in the idea of fighting for stappen for the title horer and Marco keep making little jokes about Perez doing so well because he's out of contract and we think those comments are at least semi-serious maybe Red Bull thinks that it made a mistake time perz down to not just a new contract early in 2022 but a 2-year one at that and this time it's happy to hold out to keep Perez's motivation in check and make sure his Focus doesn't stray either let's assume it really is Perez versus SS to be the sten's teammate that means Ricardo's out of the running and when we asked her if that was the case in China he didn't offer the most convincing argument that Ricardo isn't he's failed to score a point at all was out qualified by in the first four races and sonoda has scored seven points and finished in the top 10 twice being second best to sonoda repeatedly raising concerns about whether there might be a hidden problem with his car and showing the occasional sign of complete bafflement about why he's been slow had rapidly warped The recardo Narrative it was no longer is he a threat to Perez it had become could Ricardo lose his own RB seat and could he even lose it during this season there's been speculation that Ricardo's had some kind of ultimatum to improve by the Miami Grand Prix the next race after China or be replaced by Lawson Marco said it would be exciting to see Red Bull's Reserve driver Lawson on the grid this year to let it have an even clearer picture about what to do with its drivers while also putting pressure on Ricardo to up his game we understand no demand has been made to Ricardo or his team to improve by race X or your out nor has it even been indicated to him that a mid-season axing could happen at all but it is entirely possible that the drivers end up as porns in a wider power struggle within Red Bull Marco's a big fan of Lawson where whereas Ricardo's return to the Red Bull fold and then getting back on the grid last year was driven more by herner and the prospect of an inseason swap has to be taken seriously if Ricardo fails to perform because he is driving for Red Bull Red Bull's ruthlessness with its drivers and willingness to move them in and out of play as it sees fit is what got him his return from the sidelines in mid 2023 after all fortunately for Ricardo he's had the first hint of the tide turning in his favor Ricardo's not been panicking about his situation because in simple terms he's convinced that Red Bull knows what he's capable of at his best and believes he will get back to that level he can't count on his past glories forever but they have afforded him some extra time before concluding he's washed up and now there's some on track evidence in 2024 to support him Ricardo was already convinced in Japan he was making progress and then finally got the new chassis he's been waiting for in China where he comprehensively outperformed sonoda for the first time the chassis change came despite RB never finding anything wrong with the old one but one way or the other it was going to eliminate a last potential excuse for his form Ricardo admitted it would give him peace of mind if nothing else and after beating codre in Sprint qualifying the Sprint race and then qualifying for the Grand Prix he could barely hide his satisfaction with this immediate uptick in form even though he admits one weekend is too small a sample set to be sure the chassis has had anything to do with it Ricardo's race was ultimately ended early after being hit hard by Lance stroll during a strange con Ina as the Grand Prix was resuming after a safety cup but he was on course to beat sonoda before that point and sonoda was then taken out shortly after anyway so didn't go on to score a good result it should be noted that Ricardo has a very good trap record in China from before its Four Season Hiatus so he needs a run of multiple weekends like this to prove the step is real and not just circumstance specific but it will have reinforced Ricardo's confidence that he can take back control of his narrative longer term that probably won't put him in the Red Bull Racing frame again unless Perez's form nose Dives and signs go somewhere else but it would massively boost Ricardo's chances of at least staying on the grid as is now established Lawson is clearly Ricardo's biggest threat shortterm and Beyond maros effectively confirmed a long held suspicion in F1 that Red Bull promised Lawson a 2025 race seat after parking him as a reserve this year Lawson performed strongly as Ricardo's substitute for five races last season when Ricardo injured his hand on only the third weekend of his F1 comeback in the end Red Bull kept Ricardo anoda in the second team and park Lawson as Reserve basically just kicking the can down the road a few months but someone is going to have to be more permanently dropped eventually even if Red Bull does not pursue signs any further for the senior team and Perez stays there at the very least it has to choose between its other team's drivers sooner or later on early 2024 form sonoda would surely have to be kept on an RB presumably leaving it a straight choice between Ricardo and Lawson for the the seat whether that be for this year or next but if Ricardo's China form is the start of something sustainable then that changes the picture again the bottom line is that Red Bull's most extreme outcome in the driver Market is that Perez gets pushed out signs comes in and one of Ricardo or sonoda gets flicked for Lawson as well theoretically it could all stay the same with no change to the driver lineups but even that means snubbing Lon costing red boy young driver at rates and undermining its Junior program yet again and whatever happen happens it feels like Red Bull will just be left facing another Drive of quandry in 12 months time anyway

Channel: THE RACE

Views: 323,337

Keywords: f1, formula 1, formula one, F1 news, F1 latest, F1 updates, F1 explained, The Race, the-race.com, grand prix, f1 2024

Id: 4lEQlsZBb30

Length: 10min 15sec (615 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 22 2024