Red Bull heads towards Christmas with decisions to be made as Christian Horner and the other key figures in the team decide on whether Sergio Pérez remains with the team in 2025.
Pit Debrief learned last week that the Mexican is set to be dropped due to his awful run of form since a P4 finish at the Miami Grand Prix back in May.
From Imola through to Abu Dhabi, the 6-time F1 winner scored just 49 points, leaving Horner and co. with a very big decision as to whether Lawson or Tsunoda should be promoted for 2025 if Pérez is booted.
Pérez had been given a new 2-year contract earlier in the year.
Discussions to take place
Meetings are expected to take place across this week as the decision will be made as to what happens beyond 2024.
Speaking after the Abu Dhabi GP where Pérez retired on the first lap, Horner reflected on the achievements of the 34-year-old as the 2025 decision looms.
“Well, look, I mean, obviously those discussions will happen between Checo and the team.
“Now we get the season out of the way, we’ll sit down with him and reflect on the season and obviously where it’s gone wrong and collectively work out what is the right and appropriate way forward.
“I mean, Checo has been a great servant of this team. Going back to this race in 2021, the contribution that he made, 22 and 23 constructors world championships, five race victories, second in last year’s Drivers’ Championship.
“So, he’s done an awful lot for this team and we’ll sit down and reflect on this season and how we move forward.”
No official timeline on the decision
Yuki Tsunoda will be running in the RB20 in the post-season Abu Dhabi test as the team gets to evaluate whether the Japanese driver could be the man to join Max Verstappen next year if Pérez is dropped.
Horner confirmed no timeline has been made to sort things out, although a decision is expected very soon.
“Look, there’s no immediate rush. We have all the permutations that are available to us internally.
“So I think the first thing is to sit down with Checo and have that conversation now that the season is completed.
“All I can confirm is that there’s a lot of speculation [regarding if a decision to drop Pérez has been made].”
Still a Red Bull driver — for now
Pushed on whether the Mexican has any chance of staying into 2025, Horner stated that Pérez is still under contract and would not be discussing next year any further for now.
“Sitting here now, he’s still our driver, so it would be wrong for me to speculate on what next year may look like until he and I have sat down and discussed this year and we reflect on it as a team.”
Having two drivers right at the sharp end
Since Daniel Ricciardo’s departure at the end of the 2018 season, no teammate has been able to get near Max Verstappen on a regular basis: Pierre Gasly, Alex Albon and Sergio Pérez have tried their best, but it’s safe to say all three have ultimately fallen short.
With Lewis Hamilton joining Ferrari, and McLaren retaining their current line-up, Horner is fully aware that Max Verstappen needs a strong teammate in 2025, whether they choose Pérez, Lawson or Tsunoda.
“I think you can see the importance of having two drivers scoring on a collective basis in the Constructors’ Championship is crucial.
“Ferrari will be strong with their line-up next year. McLaren will have a strong line-up. Mercedes will have an inexperienced driver [Kimi Antonelli] in one of their seats.
“For us, it’s very important that we have both of our drivers delivering and there’s not a significant gap.”
How Lawson has fared in his six races
Following the decision of the wider Red Bull group to drop Daniel Ricciardo after the Singapore GP, New Zealander Liam Lawson got a further six rounds to prove himself as to whether he can make the step up to Red Bull after an impressive cameo in 2023.
The 22-year-old scored points at COTA and Interlagos, and he was showing strong race pace in Abu Dhabi before his pit stop went wrong as the left front was not fitted correctly.
He praised Lawson for the job he did, as well as Tsunoda.
Horner added that they are the two candidates for the Red Bull seat in 2025 if the expected decision to drop Pérez is confirmed.
“I think Liam, in challenging circumstances, has done a very good job.
“If you analyse what he’s done in the time that he’s had and the race pace that he’s had, I think he’s done a good job. I think Yuki’s done a good job.
“In the event that anything were decided with Checo, it would be the candidates that we would look towards.”
Verstappen defends the record of Pérez
285 points separated Verstappen and Pérez at the end of 2024, following on from a 290 difference last season when Red Bull dominated the sport.
In their four seasons together, Verstappen has outscored Pérez by 929.5 points.
Speaking after the race on Sunday, the Dutch driver defended his teammate’s record this year as the RB20 has been very difficult to drive at points throughout the campaign following a dominant start to the campaign.
Verstappen won 9 Grands Prix this year, with Pérez never looking like he would take one out.
“I work with him every weekend and week in, week out. I find people have been very harsh on him.
“Of course, some weekends maybe could have been better, naturally, but sometimes people have been very harsh on him, because he’s not an idiot.
“He’s always been regarded as a great driver, and it’s been tough.
“But it’s been tough for everyone in the team, because sometimes it [the RB20] was just very difficult to drive.”
Horner responds
Verstappen’s comments were put to Horner after the race as he was asked whether Red Bull needed to take responsibility for the struggles of the 34-year-old.
The Red Bull team principal conceded they need to have a broader operating window with the RB21 in 2025 after very difficult weekends, and he admitted going up against four-time F1 World Champion Verstappen is a monumental challenge.
“Obviously, the benchmark is always your teammate. The car has won nine races.
“With Max at the wheel it has had ten poles. It’s had, I forget how many podiums, but a significant amount of podiums and fastest laps. It’s been far from the easiest car.
“Max is the hardest teammate in the world to have. It’s a difficult job to sit next to Max, to extract the maximum out of the car.
“For sure, the RB20 has been one of the more challenging cars that we’ve produced.
“It’s operational window of extracting the maximum performance has been very narrow.
“That’s something that we’ll be working to broaden next year.”
