Red Bull Racing have got themselves in something of a pickle. Having awarded Sergio Perez a shiny new Formula One driver’s contract earlier this year, the Mexican’s results over the past six Grand Prix weekends have been simply shockingly bad.
Sergio has collected 14 points in those Grand Prix events and a single point in the Sprint in Austria. Meanwhile Oscar Piastri in only his second season of has racked up 83 points including 7 for P2 in the Sprint at the Red Bull Ring.
When questioned earlier this year when there team would begin contract negotiations with Perez, Ricciardo and Tsunoda, Christian Horner indicated it would not be before the summer break – yet something changed.
Marko v Horner over drivers
The infighting inside the Red Bull organisation has seen battle lines drawn between Dr. Helmut Marko and the Red Bull team boss Christian Horner over driver lineup decisions. The 81 year old Austrian pushed for Liam Lawson to be given a drive this year with V-CARB however Horner preferred Daniel Ricciardo who he sees as something of his protege.
Tsunoda’s position within the Red Bull organisation appeared tenuous as late as the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix, following Liam Lawson’s excellent debut in the Alpha Tauri car as a substitute for the injured Ricciardo. Yet during the weekend in Suzuka an announcement was made that the Japanese driver would be staying with the Red Bull sister team for 2024.
Dr. Marko claimed credit for this suggesting it was important for Red Bull to keep Honda close following their announcement they would be powering Aston Martin from 2026 onwards. When asked whether there had been a disagreement between himself and Horner over the re-signing of Yuki for 2024, the Austrian dismissed the notion stating:
“This is all just speculation. Just like the one about Perez,” insisted Marko. “There is no ultimatum for Perez.”
Lawson Red Bull contract exit clause
Teams are at times over protective of their young or academy drivers and are desperate for them not to be poached by another organisation. Take the recent example of Oscar Piastri. Bought and paid for by Alpine yet he was poached by McLaren – and the rest is history.
Max Verstappen too was offered to Toto Wolff as a Mercedes academy driver in his formative years, yet the boss at Brackley turned down the young Dutch talent – and the rest is history. For this reason Toto Wolff is now considering promoting Kimi Antonelli to replace Lewis Hamilton despite the young driver having just ten international racing series events under his belt.
On the face of it with a resurgent Mercedes car winning races, to put such an inexperienced driver into that car is a crazy notion. Yet if Wolff cannot find an F1 seat for him elsewhere to find his feet, he will almost certainly out of fear of losing the talented Italian bring him in alongside George Russell for 2025.
Red Bull find themselves in a similar position with Liam Lawson who competed alongside Tsunoda for five Grand Prix weekends after the summer break last season. The New Zealander had the better of Yuki and many were surprised Lawson was not drafted in to V-CARB for this year.
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Marko demands Lawson to drive
Lawson has a clause in his contract which means come the end of the summer break he is free to talk to other F1 teams, something Dr. Helmut Marko is keen to avoid.
Despite Marko claiming Red Bull were ditching the notion that V-CARB, then Alpha Tauri, was to scrap its primary function as a junior driver development team, it seems he has done an about turn stating in Austria this year: “It has now been confirmed by all decision-makers that Racing Bulls (V-CARB) will be a junior team again in the future,” F1-insider reported.
As far as Liam Lawson is concerned, in the same article Marko declares, “We will not release him because he will get another chance with us.”
Lawson tested this week at Silverstone in an RB20 in similar circumstances to Daniel Ricciardo in the RB19 after the 2023 British Grand Prix. Within hours of Ricciardo’s first few laps of the Northamptonshire circuit, news leaked from Red Bull that his times would have been good enough to get him on the from row for the recently held Grand Prix.
Test “underwhelmed” Red Bull
Marko then called up Nyck de Vries informing him his services for Alpha Tauri were no longer required and into the car stepped the apparently rehabilitated Aussie who was on Tsunoda’s pace immediately.
However, the news for Lawson is not so great following his ‘filming’ day at Silverstone. Thomas Maher, editor for Planet F1, wrote yesterday: “My understanding is that Lawson’s filming day times slightly underwhelmed Red Bull – his quickest benchmark time being two-tenths off the time earmarked as Verstappen’s benchmark from the weekend.”
Of course Marko will not want to lose the next in the pipeline of his junior drivers, although Horner may argue Isack Hadjar is making a strong case to be promoted to F1, as he currently leads the F2 championship.
Whatever the case for Lawson it appears Sergio Perez’s days are numbered given there was a clause in his new contract stating if he was more than 100 points behind his team mate by the summer break, the team could drop the Mexican with immediate effect.
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Perez for the chop
Sergio is currently 137 points behind Max and would need to win and come second in Hungary and Belgium while the world champion fails to score at all, for him to technically save his skin.
The clause was inserted for a reason and given Red Bull have scored only the third most amount of points behind McLaren and Mercedes since Miami, Perez’s continued form would see their lead in the constructors’ overturned during the second half of the season.
The scenario which keeps both Horner and Marko happy would be for Checo to leave Red Bull, Ricciardo be given one last chance and Lawson a seat alongside Tsunoda where they can bench mark each others performances.
This would be a sad end to Checo’s F1 career, but the scoreboard doesn’t lie and he is just ‘not cutting the mustard’ – as they say in Blighty.
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The 2024 Formula One season has been dominated off track with back door conversations between teams and drivers like none in recent history. At least two of the current field will be leaving the sport given rookie Oliver Bearman has been confirmed by Haas F1 and Dr. Helmut Marko insists Liam Lawson will be full time in an RB car either before the season finale or certainly for 2025.
Yet despite Lewis Hamilton kicking off the ‘silly season’ before a wheel turned in anger, matters have dragged on to the point where the normal time frame for deciding on next years driver line up has resumed.
With just two races before the summer break is upon us the pieces of the jigsaw are set soon to fall intro place. The drama in 2022 began with Sebastian Vettel announcing his retirement at the last race before August, then just one day after the summer break began Fernando Alonso decided he was leaving Alpine for Aston Martin… READ MORE
With over 30 years of experience in Formula 1 as an insider journalist, I have built trusted connections across the paddock, from race engineers and mechanics to senior team figures. At The Judge 13, I and a handful of trusted colleagues share exclusive Formula 1 news, expert analysis and behind-the-scenes stories you will not find in mainstream motorsport media.
You make the following comment –
My understanding is that Lawson’s filming day times slightly underwhelmed Red Bull – his quickest benchmark time being two-tenths off the time earmarked as Verstappen’s benchmark from the weekend.”
How can two-tenths be underwhelming when you have not driven an F1 for months, you are using Test Rubber which is completely different to race Rubber and your Driving Max’s car which probably has the same set-up from the Silverstone GP. Based on this, when you look at the Big Picture, two-tenths over 10 Laps is way closer to Verstappen than Perez has been for the last 5 Races. And that is called underwhelming, yeah right!!!