‘The irony’ – Sergio Perez tipped to ‘save’ Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career

As the Red Bull driver speculation continues, it is Sergio Perez’s “disastrous run of results” that could save Daniel Ricciardo’s F1 career.

Back on the grid with Red Bull’s junior team, VCARB, Helmut Marko has confirmed Red Bull had hoped Ricciardo could put pressure on Perez and thus take the Red Bull seat for the 2025 championship.

Liam Lawson to Red Bull, Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB, Sergio Perez out?

Instead, the Honey Badger has toiled in a season in which he’s been under pressure for Yuki Tsunoda, which led to Red Bull handing Perez a new two-year extension for 2025.

That though, is now under threat with Perez’s current form as such that PlanetF1.com understands there’s a clause in his contract that allows Red Bull to swap drivers in the summer break.

That clause is said to be his points difference to Max Verstappen, and if it’s more than 100 after the Belgian Grand Prix, Perez could be demoted. Today his deficit is 137 points and he has just two races in which to turn that around.

There is, however, a third player in Lawson who tested the RB20 at Silverstone on Thursday.

Red Bull haven’t released any information about the Kiwi’s run, but it could be what determines who’s in the Red Bull alongside Verstappen come August’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Marc Priestley, a former McLaren mechanic, reckons as the saga plays out, it could be Lawson in the RB20, Ricciardo in the VCARB and Perez on the sidelines.

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“It was another weekend to absolutely forget for Checo, coming on the back of a couple of weekends to forget in all honesty,” he told his YouTube channel.

“And the talk in the paddock this weekend has been increasingly around the likelihood of Sergio Perez being replaced even before this season is out.

“He has only just signed a contract extension, but undoubtedly there will be clauses in that contract that are performance-related, which will give Red Bull the opportunity to switch their drivers around.

“Christian Horner always talks about all of the drivers, both at Red Bull and RB, being on a generic Red Bull contract and they can be moved around, shuffled in terms of where they’re placed in the Red Bull programme.”

He added: “The talk up until now has been about Lawson replacing Daniel Ricciardo at VCARB, that seems like a fair likely scenario. It makes sense given the results, given what the team is there to do, which is to feed the main team.

“I think we can all safely say Ricciardo is not likely to be the replacement for the Red Bull main team in the future, he’s not a young driver coming through.

“Is Lawson a future Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel? We don’t know.

“We’ve seen him in a handful of races when he replaced Ricciardo last year but actually Red Bull need to get a better assessment on him. He’s much more likely to have the potential to be a future champion than the likes of Ricciardo.

“So all the talk has been, ‘will Lawson end up in the VCARB in the seat of Ricciardo?’

“But the irony now is because of Checo’s disastrous run of results, it could actually be Checo who actually saves Ricciardo’s F1 career at least for a little bit longer.

“Because now there is talk that Lawson could replace Checo, going straight into the main team as quickly as the summer break if Checo can’t change his fortunes very quickly. And if Lawson proves to be a decent driver in that car and gives a good impression in the test.

“So it could be that Ricciardo lives to fight another day, and it could be Checo who is the first of those drivers to fall.”

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