The pressure will slowly build on the dozen or so Formula 1 drivers who don’t have a contract for 2025 yet.
There are still 19 race weekends to go until the end of the season, but as Logan Sargeant will tell you, you don’t always know what the future holds until after the chequered flag has been waved in Abu Dhabi.
Speaking on the Missed Apex Formula 1 Podcast, driver and pundit Bradley Philpot is unsure if one driver driving near the front of the pack should still be on the grid.
Lewis Hamilton’s move to Ferrari has set off a domino effect around the paddock and the first tile fell after the Japanese Grand Prix when Fernando Alonso committed his future to Aston Martin.
Mercedes still have a seat to fill for next year but no one else will confirm their future until current champions Red Bull announce their partnership.
Max Verstappen is contracted until the end of the 2028 season despite Toto Wolff’s wishes to bring him to the Silver Arrows.
However, Sergio Perez is still trying to earn a new contract and Philpot has now suggested that he might be in the wrong team or lucky to be in Formula 1 altogether.
While the Mexican has finished on the podium on four occasions this season, the gap between him and his teammate has been huge at times.
That might be what the three-time world champion in the garage next to him wants, but if Ferrari continue to close the gap in terms of pace, then it might not be enough for team principal Christian Horner.
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Sergio Perez might be in the wrong F1 team with Red Bull contract expiring
Out of all of the head-to-head battles on the grid this season, Sergio Perez won’t want to look too closely at how he’s fared against Max Verstappen.
The only time Perez has defeated his teammate in qualifying or the race is when Verstappen retired in Australia following a technical issue.
While Horner has suggested that Sergio Perez reminds him of Damon Hill, it doesn’t look like he’s ever going to match his achievement of winning a world championship.
Instead, Philpot has suggested that Perez is in the wrong F1 team and might be lucky to retain his status on the grid altogether.
He thinks the gap between the £215,000-a-week driver and his teammate is too great to justify his place in the paddock.
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Sergio Perez still fighting for Formula 1 future
Speaking about the gap between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez, Philpot said: “Well, it just shows that [Sergio] Perez is in the wrong team if he should be in the sport at all.
“My main point is that I don’t think that [Max] Verstappen is six-tenths ahead of everyone.
“I think he is absolutely six-tenths ahead of the slowest driver in Formula 1 and that the gap between the best and the worst is probably about six-tenths, it’s just that it seems a bit of a shame that in an era where you’ve got one team who is clearly a big step ahead, one of the two drivers in that car is one of the drivers that is at the other end of the performance spectrum.
“It would just be nice to have someone who at least could challenge Max [Verstappen] a little bit more.
“Maybe there is an element of favouring one driver because they’re better but then that enhances the gap and makes it look worse than it actually is. But it’s annoying whatever it is.”
Could Sergio Perez be replaced next season?
While Philpot thinks Perez might be in the wrong F1 team, the Mexican only has to convince Christian Horner and Helmut Marko that he’s the right man for Red Bull to earn a new contract.
There are plenty of drivers who want his seat right now though.
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Both RB drivers would love to replace him, Daniel Ricciardo has admitted it’s his dream to return to Red Bull, while Yuki Tsunoda wants to be considered too.
They could even look at reserve driver Liam Lawson who has been promised a seat on the grid next year.
The main threat to Perez’s Red Bull future is Carlos Sainz and his father was spotted talking to Christian Horner before the Chinese Grand Prix.
He’s had a brilliant start to 2024 and while he wasn’t on the podium in Shanghai, he’ll be keeping the pressure on the rest of the grid as he looks to secure a contract for next year.
The post ‘In the wrong team’: F1 pundit questions whether £215k-a-week driver should even be in Formula 1 anymore appeared first on F1 Oversteer.
