Sergio Perez‘s fate seems to be in doldrums at the moment since there is no certainty that he will continue with Red Bull once his contract ends in 2024. The Mexican was picked up by the Austrian force at a time when he lost his seat at Racing Point (which got remodeled to Aston Martin Racing) to Sebastian Vettel . Since the start of his journey as Max Verstappen‘s teammate, he has helped the Dutchman claim his World Championship titles, but now, reports suggest Red Bull would prefer Daniel Ricciardo take Checo’s place.
Daniel Ricciardo had been a race-winning driver for Red Bull till 2018. The Aussie left the outfit to go to Renault for a massive sum of money in 2019. At that time, he was one of the highest-paid racers on the grid. However, the times have changed and last year, Ricciardo spent half the season without a regular racing seat at any of the teams. Once Helmut Marko decided to oust Nyck deVries due to poor results, the Honey Badger was recruited by AlphaTauri, and he will be seen driving for their new form (Visa Cashapp Racing Bulls) on 2024.
But Dutch racer and pundit Robin Frijns believes Daniel Ricciardo is headed for better things in the near future as Red Bull are eyeing to sign him for their campaign as early as summer of this year.
I don't expect [Sergio] Pérez to survive until the end of this year. If Pérez doesn't make it, we'll see a driver change in the summer. Red Bull would really like Daniel to be back in this car. Frijns said, via Formule1.nl.
Daniel Ricciardo claims being prematurely dropped from McLaren was ‘a blessing in disguise’
In his decade-long career as a Formula 1 racer, Daniel Ricciardo has been with some of the top-performing teams on the grid including Red Bull and McLaren. But his stint at the Woking outfit was cut short as they did not consider Ricciardo’s results as too promising. Thus, they prematurely ended his contract and paid him a large sum in compensation. Then, Red Bull took him up for a reserve driver role before sending him off to their sister team AlphaTauri as a regular racer.
As unpleasant as the situation at McLaren was, it was a blessing in disguise. Let’s just say they ended my contract because I needed to take a step back to find myself, find my love again and find my hunger again. Daniel Ricciardo said, via French version of Motorsport.com.
In other news, Daniel Ricciardo is currently gearing up for his new role as a V-CARB racer alongside his much younger teammate Yuki Tsunoda. But, with Perez’s contract coming to an end, there always remains a possibility that Red Bull might replace the talent of Checo with the experience of Ricciardo.
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