Christian Horner has admitted that Red Bull are actively looking for Sergio Perez’s replacement and have already received “quite a bit of interest”.
Perez is under contract with Red Bull until 2024, but his place with the constructor has come under intense scrutiny following some poor performances. The Mexican has 177 points fewer than his team-mate Max Verstappen, who is dominating the season despite driving the same car as Perez.
Perez didn't finish the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday after crashing into Kevin Magnussen and he finished eighth in Singapore following an incident involving Alex Albon. The 33-year-old won two of the four opening races of the season but has dropped off dramatically, sparking speculation about who might replace him at Red Bull.
McLaren star Lando Norris has been touted by some as a successor, while AlphaTauri trio Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson are in-house alternatives. In an interview with Sky Sports, Red Bull team principal Horner described Norris as “a great driver” and “a big talent, big personality” and confirmed he was part of a group of “many drivers that you keep an eye on”.
But Horner seemed to suggest that he would like to recruit Perez’s replacement for 2025 from drivers who are already working for sister outfit AlphaTauri. “Being Max's team-mate is never going to be easy and some drivers may be up for that challenge, some may not be,” he said. “But, of course, as well as the drivers we have in-house we keep an eye on all the driver market. As you can imagine, there's quite a bit of interest from certain sectors about driving a Red Bull car."
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He added: "Max is operating at such a level that his confidence, his commitment, his talent is absolute at the moment and it's difficult to envisage somebody beating him in the same equipment. But there's some great talent out there and of course what we want is the best two drivers we can possibly field.
Sergio Perez is under huge pressure at Red Bull (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)HAVE YOUR SAY! Who should replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull? Comment below.
"So ideally that will come from within the talent pool that we have, and if we don't believe there's that capability we will look outside of that as to who's available."
While the prospect of driving for the best team in F1 looks to be an alluring prospect, it can be difficult to play second fiddle to a more dominant team-mate. Former world champion Damon Hill believes that Red Bull need to find the right kind of personality for the role. "I think the team desperately wants a little bit more of a wingman for Max. They know that Max is almost untouchable,” he said on Sky Sports.
"Do you remember when Michael Schumacher dominated Ferrari and nobody could cope with being number two to Michael? I remember Ross Brawn saying to Eddie Irvine, 'Listen, you can't beat him. You just do the best you can', which is anathema to a racing driver to hear that.”
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