F1 star admits ‘giving up’ over Red Bull driver lineup

Perez and Horner discussing — Photo: © IMAGO

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F1 star admits ‘giving up’ over Red Bull driver lineup

Red Bull's 2025 driver lineup is still up in the air despite Sergio Perez being contracted with the team

Kerry Violet F1 News Editor

F1 editor and journalist covering motorsport since 2024.

Monday 25 November 2024 10:57

A star of the Formula 1 paddock has admitted he has 'given up' with Red Bull over their looming driver lineup decision.

Christian Horner's outfit have experienced a whirlwind year in the sport, constantly facing questions over their driver pairing, despite securing yet another drivers' title thanks to star racer Max Verstappen.

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The Dutchman claimed his fourth consecutive championship with Red Bull thanks to a P5 finish ahead of rival Lando Norris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The team finally took home double points after Verstappen's underperforming team-mate Sergio Perez finished P10- so yes, just a singular point contributed for now.

With Red Bull still down in third in the constructors' standings, team principal Horner delivered a desperate plea to Perez to pick up the pace in the remaining race weekends and with just two to go following Vegas, the Mexican racer will be hoping to maximise the grands prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as well as the sprint race next time out.

Christian Horner celebrated Max Verstappen's 2024 championship victory in Las Vegas

Sergio Perez has been under pressure to prove his worth at Red Bull this season

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Former F1 driver admits losing hope for Perez

Although Perez may have scraped into the points at the iconic street circuit, his last 17 outings in the RB20 have failed to land him in the top five where he would ideally need to be to start making a contribution to the team's championship once again.

With Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko having openly admitted the two junior RB drivers- Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are auditioning for Perez's seat, the pressure is on for the 34-year-old to start delivering or face an early contract termination.

Discussing Red Bull's web of driver lineup options, former racer and Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok admitted: "I’ve given up trying to work it out, I honestly have."

"It’s really difficult to work out what they’re going to do between Perez, Lawson, Tsunoda, Coplapinto seems to be on the radar, Isack Hadjar I saw some lines in the press, he’s going to be testing in Abu Dhabi as well, is he an outside contender for the RB seat if Lawson goes into Red Bull?"

Liam Lawson is in contention to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull

"I mean apart from Max being there and probably Yuki being in RB we think… well he gets his Red Bull test doesn’t he… I don’t know I’m just going to wait for the announcement."

When mentioned on the broadcast that Perez is contracted with Red Bull for 2025, Chandhok responded: "I’m sure he’s got a contract but ultimately for the team they’ve got to look at what is the best opportunity to score enough points to win the constructors' world championship.

"If they’re going to finish third, that’s a heap of money that they’ve cost themselves there and despite all drivers, you know you have contracts, there will be performance clauses in there and those are the bits that we don’t hear about."

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Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

View full biography

F1 Red Bull Max Verstappen Christian Horner Sergio Perez Las Vegas Grand Prix