Sergio Perez is in a precarious position at Red Bull (Image: Getty)
is at risk of losing his seat with following a miserable 2024 campaign, and team principal has now stated that he may wait ‘all the way up until the start of the 2025 season’ to choose ’s next team-mate.
For the majority of the season when dealing with the media, Horner has refused to entertain the possibility of replacing Perez before the end of his contract. However, with the Mexican securing just one top-five finish in his last 16 races, the noise is becoming impossible to ignore.
“All the drivers that we have under contract, we’re very clear on what their contractual situations are,” he said in Las Vegas. “We could, if we so chose, leave it all the way up until Melbourne next year if we want to because we have drivers under contract. But inevitably at the end of the year, we’ll sit down and look at all the information that’s available to us.”
have plenty of options to replace the 34-year-old with too. Liam Lawson has thrown his weight around since replacing at , scoring points in two of his first three starts.
Elsewhere, Franco Colapinto has been touted as a target for Horner specifically following an eye-catching start to life at Williams. However, three costly crashes across the weekends in Brazil and Las Vegas may have damaged the young Argentinian’s stock.
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Christian Horner has some difficult decisions to make over the winter (Image: Getty)
also can’t be ruled out. The Japanese racer is seen as the outside bet despite putting together a strong and consistent campaign, but he is scheduled to test the RB20 in the post-season test in Abu Dhabi, hinting that Horner and Helmut Marko will not be rushing their decision.
What is certain is that are running out of patience with Perez. Speaking to ORF on Friday, Marko said: With our performance today, we have absolutely no chance of second place, let alone first place. That was clear for a while because if you compare Checo’s points with Max’s points, you know what the problem is.”
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Things got even worse for Perez in Las Vegas on Saturday. The six-time Grand Prix winner was eliminated in Q1 as his qualifying woes continued, all but ending ’s faint hopes of beating to second in the Constructors’ Championship standings.
Attention is now focused on Verstappen’s championship bid. The Dutchman can claim a fourth Drivers’ Championship crown if he leaves Las Vegas with an advantage of 60 points or more. He starts alongside rival on the third row of the grid.