Two figures in Formula 1 have identified the driver they believe should urgently take over Sergio Perez's position at Red Bull.
Even with his recent contract renewal, Perez's role next to Max Verstappen remains precarious due to performance-related clauses, especially given his current downturn.
Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren, perceives this as a golden chance to outperform Red Bull in the constructors' championship. "Sergio is not performing well," he noted, "and that gives us an opportunity."
Former Haas leader Gunther Steiner also recognized the imminent risk for Red Bull. "Now McLaren have a good car, two good drivers, and at Red Bull they have to be careful who comes behind them now," he expressed to Canal Plus, adding, "Red Bull has never been afraid to make these kinds of decisions. Clearly, he (Perez) doesn't deserve his place."
Ex-F1 racer Christijan Albers commented that re-signing Perez was a "panic action" aimed solely "to please (Max) Verstappen."
"But the competition is closer now," he told De Telegraaf, "so those five or six tenths (per lap) hurt. He is now even outside the top ten."
Another former driver, Giedo van der Garde, suggested that the decisive moment for Perez might come when Verstappen openly states the need for a more capable teammate. "He'll say: he (Perez) is not doing well, and it's important that we become constructors' champions, so put someone else in," he remarked during the DRS De Race Show podcast.
While Daniel Ricciardo has been considered a possible successor, his recent struggles to match his teammate Yuki Tsunoda at RB have lessened his chances for a Red Bull promotion. "There is actually only one simple choice," van der Garde observed. "Not Ricciardo, because he still performs worse than Tsunoda. Ricciardo should finish his year and then do something else."
"I say, just put Liam Lawson in. He is a rookie, and he can still learn a lot from Max. Nobody expects much from him, because he is still a rookie," he added.
"Max gets along fine with Lawson, and he's no threat to Max either. So why wouldn't you put him in?"
Albers concurred: "Just throw Lawson in there. What do they have to lose? They are already outside the top ten with Perez anyway," the former Minardi driver concluded.
