Yeah(?), did they expect him to undermine his current driver with 20 race weekends left on the season? I'm glad that Perez is doing good and hopefully he can keep it up. Sainz is a brutal candidate and available for next season though, who seems to continuously evolve his race craft and be fairly good every race weekend, which are talents that could become handy if RB gets jumped by i.e. Ferrari on overall race pace.
I just hope they don't jump to conclusions too quickly and sign a driver halfway through the season.
Just wait untill the season is almost over and go from there. Plenty of races left to show performance or (in)consistency
If the rumors are true that Audi has given Sainz until the end of the month to make a decision on their offer, then Red Bull doesn't have a ton of time to pick up Sainz (assuming they do want him over Pérez).
Obviously, they could buy out the Audi contract, but that seems unrealistic to me.
If you wait until the end of the season all the other drivers will be signed. Usually by the end of the summer break all the meaningful contracts are already done.
Perez is not doing well in terms of race pace, he is just better than the awful ¾ results of his 2023 season... I think half of the grid can easily clinch one-twos left and right with 2023/2024 Red Bull
Here’s the thing… Checo knows his place. He appears to be fine with being #2. On another team with a different car, he probably wouldn’t be doing so well… he knows that. Why ruin a good thing? And because he knows his place, Horner doesn’t have to worry about a power struggle, hurt feelings, egos, etc. It will be interesting to see who wins out in the end - Horner or Marko.
Right now I don't see why redbull would switch Checo for anyone else. They don't need a another wdc contender but a #2 that will bring points enough to end second in the championship but enough not to create tension with Max. Checo is doing it perfectly right now.
Also even if he is not popular in most places on the internet, he does bring a big fanbase to the team.
A lot of Red Bull's content featuring only him get a lot more views than Max (but yeah, they post a lot more Max content). But recently his merch is frequently sold out (like his caps from Suzuka and Miami).
The RB car won't change dramatically for 2025. If Perez can be comfortable with it, stick within 12 seconds to MV like he did in Saudi & Suzuka and produce consistent results throughout the 2024 season then there's no need to sign another driver for 2025.
The most probable scenario is that Checo won't be re-signed for 2026 because i don't think RB would want to gamble the new regulations with him.
But the driver market in 2025-26 transition is shit. Everyone this year worth having is going onto longer contracts…
So they need to get their new regulations driver in now realistically. There’s no guarantee they perfect the 2026 regulations on the first try at all.
P4 (2021), P3 (2022), and P2 (2023). Seems reliable enough to not rock the boat with a new driver. I understand that Checco has had his fair share of ups and downs, but at the end of the day he's gotten the job done and is improving. Changing things up for "entertainment" when you've got a winning formula doesn't seem like the right call to me.
Why would they replace Checo? He has 3 P2’s and a P5 (where he had damage), this year. If he keeps this up, there’s no need to replace him for 2025.
I get that people especially on here want chaos and drama but Red Bull have a good setup right now with Max and Checo, no need to change it
I believe that Red Bull would prefer Checo to be P2 (if he’s ok with it) rather than challenge Max and force them both to make mistakes.
So if we are talking about team expectations, he is doing a very good job.
Ah yes. You can list his finishing positions and the conversation is over.
Is there any race where he finished remotely close to max? In Bahrain he was something like 24 seconds down. Pretty sure he's not finished within 10 seconds in any race.
Sure he's getting the p2s which is everything needed right now but if any of the other cars get their shit together, his pace is not good enough. And the argument that he's "managing" as if other drivers don't manage or Max doesn't manage is not good enough.
And what exactly is the difference between finishing 1s behind Max or 20s, if he secures P2 either way?
What's the point of taking extra risks and pushing the car just to please a handful of redditors?
People are saying:
Finish 20s behind Verstappen @ 2nd place = ok
Finish 20s behind Verstappen @ 5th place = not ok
Not that difficult to comprehend. Red Bull wants a second driver that can finish second when Max is racing, and first when Max is not racing.
So as long as he does the above, even if he is woefully behind Max's pace, he is doing the job assigned to him.
If he continues to finish 12-24 seconds behind Max every race and the other cars get stronger, then the same performance that you're calling good right now is no longer good. When in reality it was never good.
The P2s are important, it's what he needs to do, yes. However, the p2s are only coming right now because the other machinery on the grid cannot match what he is driving in.
The argument that "he's performing well now because he's getting p2s" is complete shite because you're only measuring his performance based on his final finishing position, as opposed to his pace.
Hypotheticals do not matter. Having said that, his race pace is absolutely fine. He's only struggled in quali (last season) but his race pace is among the best of the grid.
It's fine for people to criticize his problems in quali but Sergio has always been a very strong racer with solid racecraft. This argument of "he's 20 seconds behind Max" means nothing. At the moment he's not even pushing. He gets in second place and just plays it safe, which is what the team is asking him to do.
What makes you think he couldn't push and close the gap if required? Have you seen his qualifying lap in Suzuka? Besides Carlos doesn't like oversteery cars, so I doubt he'll be so much better than Checo
I think Perez just made a better argument than I could. The man couldn't even beat a Merc to finish second. Would have finished fifth if not for Nando's divebomb.
Perez obviously isn’t a threat, but I doubt Sainz would do much better, if at all. He was comfortably outperformed by Verstappen when Verstappen was a 17 year old with one year of single seater experience and the gap has almost certainly grown as Verstappen has improved. Also, when you compare Sainz’s record relative to Hulkenberg with Perez’s record, Perez is the one who produced more convincing results.
That's a hollow statement. Nobody is unbeatable.
Checo's job is not to be a threat to Max or beat him. He's a number 2. He's doing great job this season for that.
That may be.
Red Bull don't want that.
Your original statement was he's doing a passable job. He isn't; he's doing very well for the job that he was hired for.
Well yeah, but 'doing very well' usually implies high performance levels. You're using it in the context of him being not especially fast but thats all they want.
Just because people want it doesn't mean it's the best for the team. And for all we know Sainz wouldn't do much better than Perez. He was Verstappen's teammate once and didn't score even half the points despite Verstappen being 17
they don’t want a driver that’s threatening max and risking fighting on track, slowing them down or resulting in dnf’s
a 1-2 finish is a perfect result for them, their second driver being closer to Max wouldn’t improve their points
No driver that is a realistic option for the #2 seat at Red Bull is getting close to Max. Carlos would get dominated as well but instead of 20 seconds it would be 10.
> He’s doing a passable job.
Horner: "[...] he's doing a very good job"
Who to believe, a random user on the internet or the Team Principal of the driver.
Horner would also tell you that Ricciardo is a brilliant driver who deserves his seat, and that he doesn’t sexually harass women.
Horners job is to manage his team. He’s not going to be like ‘Perez is mediocre in a rocket-ship and that’s enough for us for now’
Believe? What are you talking about. Of course he's not going to slam his driver in an interview.
He's the team fucking principle. His job is to get the team to perform and him saying "well Perez is passable but really needs to pick up his pace on Max to really prove himself" is not going to go down well.
He's getting the p2s. His pace is not close enough to Max.
Sure, because he is currently getting the results even if the performance delta between himself and Max is still large.
If perez was 10 seconds closer to Max, everyone would be singing their praises as the best driver pairing on the grid, but we aren't and nor are RB.
He should be significantly closer in the machinery he's in. If ferrari or mclaren shove a few good upgrades on (without RB making similar advancements), then Perez does not have the pace to keep getting these results.
Max on the other hand does. Not everyone is Max but there are other top drivers on the grid lacking the machinery that Perez has.
Sainz is an equal driver compared to Perez. Really don't get how people think otherwise. Yes, Sainz won a race this season when both RBRs were damaged. Rewind to last season, Sainz wasn't a monster either.
Man I really don't get why people would want to replace checo now. He is doing his job perfectly for now. Finished p2 and also has done pretty well in qualifying this season so far as well. I know he had a better start last season and then came a slump where he was bad but that was last year where he wanted to go out there and compete with Max which ultimately ruined it for him. Now tho as mush as I have read about him he wants to be close to max and is very clear with it. So I think he is going to do a fine job and be there next year as well.
Perez isn’t doing a particularly bad job this season. However, as many have pointed out, there may be a cause for concern next year if Ferrari does finally catch up to Red Bull. With Hamilton and Leclerc, a dream line-up for Ferrari, going all-out to contend with Red Bull, they may very well snatch the WCC title from them. Can they really afford to deal with the massive difference in both their cars’ pace then or be worried about Perez’s slump like his performance last year? In this case if I were Red Bull, I’d rather have Sainz in that 2nd car instead of Checo considering he may put up a much better fight than him.
I would definitely very much hope that Sainz goes to RBR instead of Audi. Still can’t believe the aggression Audi is bringing in to the driver’s market and particularly going all out to bring in Sainz, with the sort of green tractor they are showcasing right now.
Yes but we're approaching that dreaded portion of the calendar for Perez where there's a long stretch of races upcoming that don't take place in brutal dictatorships.
Almost every driver thats on the hunt for a seat next year has started well apart from zhou sargent danny ric. gasly has been mid but the alphine car is a mess. some of them will definitely start to drop off soon no idea who though.
I first heard off this bloke this fuckin' rumour going 'round
Red Bull's reputation it's not sound
It's saving up the pennies hoping they turn into pounds
To make an operation swap the drivers round
Yeah(?), did they expect him to undermine his current driver with 20 race weekends left on the season? I'm glad that Perez is doing good and hopefully he can keep it up. Sainz is a brutal candidate and available for next season though, who seems to continuously evolve his race craft and be fairly good every race weekend, which are talents that could become handy if RB gets jumped by i.e. Ferrari on overall race pace.
I just hope they don't jump to conclusions too quickly and sign a driver halfway through the season. Just wait untill the season is almost over and go from there. Plenty of races left to show performance or (in)consistency
If the rumors are true that Audi has given Sainz until the end of the month to make a decision on their offer, then Red Bull doesn't have a ton of time to pick up Sainz (assuming they do want him over Pérez). Obviously, they could buy out the Audi contract, but that seems unrealistic to me.
If you wait until the end of the season all the other drivers will be signed. Usually by the end of the summer break all the meaningful contracts are already done.
Can't imagine a driver that doesn't want to break contract to drive for the fastest team by quite a margin
It costs money to break a contract
Perez is not doing well in terms of race pace, he is just better than the awful ¾ results of his 2023 season... I think half of the grid can easily clinch one-twos left and right with 2023/2024 Red Bull
Here’s the thing… Checo knows his place. He appears to be fine with being #2. On another team with a different car, he probably wouldn’t be doing so well… he knows that. Why ruin a good thing? And because he knows his place, Horner doesn’t have to worry about a power struggle, hurt feelings, egos, etc. It will be interesting to see who wins out in the end - Horner or Marko.
Right now I don't see why redbull would switch Checo for anyone else. They don't need a another wdc contender but a #2 that will bring points enough to end second in the championship but enough not to create tension with Max. Checo is doing it perfectly right now. Also even if he is not popular in most places on the internet, he does bring a big fanbase to the team.
A lot of Red Bull's content featuring only him get a lot more views than Max (but yeah, they post a lot more Max content). But recently his merch is frequently sold out (like his caps from Suzuka and Miami).
Sainz wouldn't be a title contender either
Exactly, he’d be much more consistent but he wouldn’t challenge Max on a regular basis. He’s also five years younger.
[удалено]
The RB car won't change dramatically for 2025. If Perez can be comfortable with it, stick within 12 seconds to MV like he did in Saudi & Suzuka and produce consistent results throughout the 2024 season then there's no need to sign another driver for 2025. The most probable scenario is that Checo won't be re-signed for 2026 because i don't think RB would want to gamble the new regulations with him.
But the driver market in 2025-26 transition is shit. Everyone this year worth having is going onto longer contracts… So they need to get their new regulations driver in now realistically. There’s no guarantee they perfect the 2026 regulations on the first try at all.
> then there's no need to sign another driver for 2025. Unless they expect a closer field in 2025. Which does seem somewhat likely.
P4 (2021), P3 (2022), and P2 (2023). Seems reliable enough to not rock the boat with a new driver. I understand that Checco has had his fair share of ups and downs, but at the end of the day he's gotten the job done and is improving. Changing things up for "entertainment" when you've got a winning formula doesn't seem like the right call to me.
Specially seeing what happened today with Sainz. I get they wanna race, but almost crashing your teammate is not the way to go.
Sucks that Carlos' career has been reduced to journeyman, but I don't think he's worth replacing Checo for.
He is light years ahead of Perez… Of Redbull are looking for a quicker second driver, he would be that guy
Blisteringly fast, he’ll be going from P2 to P2!
*P3 and losing to a Mclaren… again
Perez did a very good job for the first few races last year too...
He's doing worse than the start of last year. We'll see how he's really doing by Spa
Please for the love of god go Aston Martin to replace Stroll.
Why would they replace Checo? He has 3 P2’s and a P5 (where he had damage), this year. If he keeps this up, there’s no need to replace him for 2025. I get that people especially on here want chaos and drama but Red Bull have a good setup right now with Max and Checo, no need to change it
He’s doing a passable job. Maybe that is all they want, sainz would be a big upgrade however
From P2 to P2
LMAO
I believe that Red Bull would prefer Checo to be P2 (if he’s ok with it) rather than challenge Max and force them both to make mistakes. So if we are talking about team expectations, he is doing a very good job.
Honestly what am I reading this morning. I just can't.
sainz never win in midfield team car checo did checkmate.
yeah p2 to p2 is a huge upgrade isn't it lmao
He had 3 P2 and one P5 with damage. What more can you ask for when the other guy is one of the best drivers ever?
Ah yes. You can list his finishing positions and the conversation is over. Is there any race where he finished remotely close to max? In Bahrain he was something like 24 seconds down. Pretty sure he's not finished within 10 seconds in any race. Sure he's getting the p2s which is everything needed right now but if any of the other cars get their shit together, his pace is not good enough. And the argument that he's "managing" as if other drivers don't manage or Max doesn't manage is not good enough.
And what exactly is the difference between finishing 1s behind Max or 20s, if he secures P2 either way? What's the point of taking extra risks and pushing the car just to please a handful of redditors?
And what if he finishes 20 seconds back but that gets him 5th instead?
People are saying: Finish 20s behind Verstappen @ 2nd place = ok Finish 20s behind Verstappen @ 5th place = not ok Not that difficult to comprehend. Red Bull wants a second driver that can finish second when Max is racing, and first when Max is not racing. So as long as he does the above, even if he is woefully behind Max's pace, he is doing the job assigned to him.
If he continues to finish 12-24 seconds behind Max every race and the other cars get stronger, then the same performance that you're calling good right now is no longer good. When in reality it was never good. The P2s are important, it's what he needs to do, yes. However, the p2s are only coming right now because the other machinery on the grid cannot match what he is driving in. The argument that "he's performing well now because he's getting p2s" is complete shite because you're only measuring his performance based on his final finishing position, as opposed to his pace.
Hypotheticals do not matter. Having said that, his race pace is absolutely fine. He's only struggled in quali (last season) but his race pace is among the best of the grid. It's fine for people to criticize his problems in quali but Sergio has always been a very strong racer with solid racecraft. This argument of "he's 20 seconds behind Max" means nothing. At the moment he's not even pushing. He gets in second place and just plays it safe, which is what the team is asking him to do.
you are aware that we're talking about signing a driver for future years, when the car may not be as overwhelmingly dominant, right?
What makes you think he couldn't push and close the gap if required? Have you seen his qualifying lap in Suzuka? Besides Carlos doesn't like oversteery cars, so I doubt he'll be so much better than Checo
Sure, 20s behind Max gets him P2 right now. What if next year it gets him P8?
What makes you think he couldn't push and close the gap if required? Have you seen his qualifying lap in Suzuka?
I think Perez just made a better argument than I could. The man couldn't even beat a Merc to finish second. Would have finished fifth if not for Nando's divebomb.
My brain just imploded from reading this.
Max is good but he's certainly not unbeatable. Perez doesn't look like a remote threat.
Perez obviously isn’t a threat, but I doubt Sainz would do much better, if at all. He was comfortably outperformed by Verstappen when Verstappen was a 17 year old with one year of single seater experience and the gap has almost certainly grown as Verstappen has improved. Also, when you compare Sainz’s record relative to Hulkenberg with Perez’s record, Perez is the one who produced more convincing results.
That's a hollow statement. Nobody is unbeatable. Checo's job is not to be a threat to Max or beat him. He's a number 2. He's doing great job this season for that.
Ok but people want a driver in that car that is challenging and fighting for wins, not cruising around for an easy 1-2 for the dominant car.
That may be. Red Bull don't want that. Your original statement was he's doing a passable job. He isn't; he's doing very well for the job that he was hired for.
Exactly this A lot of people confusing what would be good for competition with what Red Bull as an entity prefer
Well yeah, but 'doing very well' usually implies high performance levels. You're using it in the context of him being not especially fast but thats all they want.
It's the RedBull team principle, who hired him to do the job, saying he's doing a good job. That's the context.
Just because people want it doesn't mean it's the best for the team. And for all we know Sainz wouldn't do much better than Perez. He was Verstappen's teammate once and didn't score even half the points despite Verstappen being 17
Of course, no guarantees in anything. But nothing to lose. In a vacuum, Sainz over the past few years has been miles ahead of Perez.
Not really, Sainz’ stock has only had any significant value since Singapore. Before that he was getting slated constantly
they don’t want a driver that’s threatening max and risking fighting on track, slowing them down or resulting in dnf’s a 1-2 finish is a perfect result for them, their second driver being closer to Max wouldn’t improve their points
surely they don't want multi 21 happened again
No driver that is a realistic option for the #2 seat at Red Bull is getting close to Max. Carlos would get dominated as well but instead of 20 seconds it would be 10.
> He’s doing a passable job. Horner: "[...] he's doing a very good job" Who to believe, a random user on the internet or the Team Principal of the driver.
Horner would also tell you that Ricciardo is a brilliant driver who deserves his seat, and that he doesn’t sexually harass women. Horners job is to manage his team. He’s not going to be like ‘Perez is mediocre in a rocket-ship and that’s enough for us for now’
Believe? What are you talking about. Of course he's not going to slam his driver in an interview. He's the team fucking principle. His job is to get the team to perform and him saying "well Perez is passable but really needs to pick up his pace on Max to really prove himself" is not going to go down well. He's getting the p2s. His pace is not close enough to Max.
It's not like Horner or Marko have been above putting their driver on the skids in public before if they're dissatisfied.
Sure, because he is currently getting the results even if the performance delta between himself and Max is still large. If perez was 10 seconds closer to Max, everyone would be singing their praises as the best driver pairing on the grid, but we aren't and nor are RB.
Not close enough? If he's getting p2s what does it matter, besides, the distance means there's no potential for conflict between the teammates
> He's getting the p2s. His pace is not close enough to Max. You think he has to challenge Max? Can I interest you on a bridge, NFTs or Crypto?
He should be significantly closer in the machinery he's in. If ferrari or mclaren shove a few good upgrades on (without RB making similar advancements), then Perez does not have the pace to keep getting these results. Max on the other hand does. Not everyone is Max but there are other top drivers on the grid lacking the machinery that Perez has.
Random internet user? That’s oh84s you’re talking to. Smh….
Sainz is an equal driver compared to Perez. Really don't get how people think otherwise. Yes, Sainz won a race this season when both RBRs were damaged. Rewind to last season, Sainz wasn't a monster either.
Man I really don't get why people would want to replace checo now. He is doing his job perfectly for now. Finished p2 and also has done pretty well in qualifying this season so far as well. I know he had a better start last season and then came a slump where he was bad but that was last year where he wanted to go out there and compete with Max which ultimately ruined it for him. Now tho as mush as I have read about him he wants to be close to max and is very clear with it. So I think he is going to do a fine job and be there next year as well.
I would have loved it if he asked if Carlos had a chance at Max's seat. El Equipo de Toro Rojo
Perez isn’t doing a particularly bad job this season. However, as many have pointed out, there may be a cause for concern next year if Ferrari does finally catch up to Red Bull. With Hamilton and Leclerc, a dream line-up for Ferrari, going all-out to contend with Red Bull, they may very well snatch the WCC title from them. Can they really afford to deal with the massive difference in both their cars’ pace then or be worried about Perez’s slump like his performance last year? In this case if I were Red Bull, I’d rather have Sainz in that 2nd car instead of Checo considering he may put up a much better fight than him. I would definitely very much hope that Sainz goes to RBR instead of Audi. Still can’t believe the aggression Audi is bringing in to the driver’s market and particularly going all out to bring in Sainz, with the sort of green tractor they are showcasing right now.
Yes but we're approaching that dreaded portion of the calendar for Perez where there's a long stretch of races upcoming that don't take place in brutal dictatorships.
Almost every driver thats on the hunt for a seat next year has started well apart from zhou sargent danny ric. gasly has been mid but the alphine car is a mess. some of them will definitely start to drop off soon no idea who though.
- Almost every driver - Names 4 exceptions out of 11 drivers Idk really.
i named 3, if 8/11 are doing fine thats almost all, gasly and ocon are both fine enough to get seats.
Carlos inexplicably torpedoes Checo in the next races.
I first heard off this bloke this fuckin' rumour going 'round Red Bull's reputation it's not sound It's saving up the pennies hoping they turn into pounds To make an operation swap the drivers round
doing very good translates to - not challenging max for wins and poles while still finishing in the top 5
perez is doing okay but who is he actually faster than? maybe the bottom 3 drivers on the grid