He talked a massive game during the opening races, but he’s failed to get into Q3 at half the races so far. It’s incredible how Verstappen just stomps everyone thrown into the other car, young or experienced, and in every area. I honestly don’t think Checo “the tyre whisperer” Perez is better than Ver at tyre-saving, nor strategy, nor raw pace…
Is there anyone who RB would feasibly replace Per with? Maybe Norris? I’m not a huge fan personally, but I know he’s got plenty of cachet at the moment.
This guy Albon seems pretty good. Definitely outperforming that Williams. RB should give him a shot!
Really though. While Norris had a good weekend I don’t think Perez is a worse driver than him. Verstappen is just a legend. In the league of Hamilton and Alonso who, when they gel with the car, can work magic and leave their teammates in the dust.
As long as Red Bull win the constructors I think he’s safe
agreed, for the short term
Ricciardo is the reserve pilot and he’s waiting for a chance to return. Perez is just making Horner’s decision easy, he won’t be around much more if he doesn’t improve his racing.
Exactly. Verstappen didn’t leave Ricciardo in the dust when they were teammates. Admittedly, Verstappen had not yet reached his prime, but I’m still certain Ricciardo would do well in the second car.
Are we forgetting that Ric got absolutely destroyed by Norris? I don’t think he’d do better than Checo.
with the fact that Danny is a reserve at Redbull i’m sure the team has all the simulator data and know exactly which driver is the quicker of the 2. But i think if they did swap the 2, pace is only a small factor on that decision.
Maybe Ric meshes better with the way the RB handles? He had a very established driving style at RB which didn’t wind up translating to the way the McLaren ran. Maybe throwing him back into a RB/RB adjacent car will help bring out the better performance he exhibited in the RB.
I like Perez, but he is underperforming. Who else have they got, though? Tsunoda and De Vries won’t be any better.
There’s two drivers I could maybe see being an improvement while still being a clear number two: Bottas and Sainz. But I’m not sure it’d serve Red Bull’s goals in the long run.
Ricciardo is their reserve driver, and was able to keep pace with Verstappen when they were teammates (although VER only got better and RIC only got worse since that time). The driver market is a bit thin at the moment.
Agree with other people here. As long as Max gets the championship and RB wins the constructors I don’t think Perez needs to worry.
Of course getting 1 and 2 on the championship would be preferred but getting someone else on that car, adapting not only the car but the people too, the team, to the new driver and make sure they have the same goals, all that at this point in the tournament when I think it’s safe to assume RB will win both championships, seems too much of a hassle and unneeded. Perez seems safe on that seat to me. Could be wrong tho.
Hmm i think that Verstappen doesn’t want it to be 1 and 2 for prestige reasons: if your second driver is second in the championship it means that it was the car, not the driver.
Hence why last year he actively sabotaged Perez.
I feel like you vastly overestimate how much he cares what people think of him
(And we all know why he really did that of course, there isn’t much to speculate about)
