Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has admitted that he is ‘interested’ to see how a rival driver linked with replacing Sergio Perez fares in the 2024 Japanese GP.
The team from Milton Keynes have secured their first one-two start of this season at Suzuka. Max Verstappen will start the Japanese GP from pole position after leading qualifying for the fourth time in four races. While Perez has secured his debut front-row start of the campaign.
Verstappen has won qualifying at each of the opening meets as he goes in search of a fourth consecutive drivers’ championship. But Perez only sealed P5 in qualifying for the Bahrain GP, P3 for the Saudi Arabian GP and P3 for the Australian GP as he fights for his seat on the grid.
Sergio Perez scores his best qualifying of 2024 while fighting for his Red Bull future
Perez was also unable to step in and win the Australian GP for Red Bull after Verstappen had a brake issue which forced him to retire on Lap 3. The Mexican finished the race in P5, partly due to a tear-off becoming stuck in the floor of his car, after sealing P2 in Sakhir and Jeddah.
Red Bull must decide if Perez has a future in Milton Keynes beyond his fourth season as their No2 driver. The 34-year-old is out of contract at the end of this year, and drivers from Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz to Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon are in the mix to take his seat.
READ MORE: Red Bull driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname
Edd Straw of The Race reports that Horner is even ‘a little bit more’ interested in Red Bull re-signing Ricciardo to replace Perez in 2025 than motorsport advisor Helmut Marko. Ricciardo drove for the team from 2014 to 2018 and secured seven of his eight career Grand Prix wins.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner is ‘interested’ to see Daniel Ricciardo’s Japanese GP
It has not been a great start to the 2024 season at Visa Cash App RB for Ricciardo, though. His engineer, Pierre Hamelin, even stated over the team’s radio after the 34-year-old sealed P11 in qualifying for the Japanese GP that Ricciardo ‘always’ needs ‘to do a little bit better’.
It followed RB team principal Laurent Mekies suggesting that the ‘truth’ behind Ricciardo’s struggles is that the Australian is not comfortable with their 2024 car. He has so far finished in P13 in the Bahrain GP, P16 in the Saudi Arabian GP and P12 in the Australian GP this year.
READ MORE: Visa Cash App RB driver Daniel Ricciardo’s life outside F1 from net worth to girlfriend
Ricciardo will now look to score his best finish of 2024 in the Japanese GP after qualifying in P11. His teammate, Yuki Tsunoda, cost the Perth native a place in Q3 by only 0.055 seconds. But Horner recognises that Ricciardo also sat out FP1 while Ayumu Iwasa made his F1 debut.
“At a track that he didn’t have a lot of track time [at] – he didn’t do P1 because there was a junior driver in the car – P2 then got rained off,” Horner told Channel 4 (6/4, 12:22).
“So, to jump in and be 10th and 11th with Yuki and Daniel very tightly positioned together, I think he’ll take a lot of confidence. So, it will be interesting to see how he runs in the race.”
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