Rumors over Sergio Perez’s future have been aroused by the purported appearance of a test drive for Liam Lawson in Red Bull’s current F1 vehicle, says Lewis Larkam at Silverstone.
Red Bull gave Perez a new two-year contract in June, but he has been under increasing criticism due to his poor performance.
This year, Max Verstappen has won seven of the eleven races, whereas Perez has not finished on the podium since the Chinese Grand Prix in April.
Perez has had a run of poor qualifying results and has not placed better than sixth in any of his last five races. His most recent subpar performance occurred on Saturday at Silverstone, where he beached his Red Bull in the gravel early in the first qualifying round, finishing 19th.
Perez now sits sixth in the championship with 118 points, behind Verstappen’s 237 after the wild run. Currently leading the constructors’ standings by 64 points over second-place Ferrari is Red Bull.
Christian Horner, the principle of Red Bull, said that Perez’s current bad run of form is “no hiding.”
At the British Grand Prix, Horner said to Sky Sports F1, “This is a sport where there’s no hiding, particularly with Max Verstappen as your team-mate.”
He is aware that he is up against the best, and we need him to help Max as there are currently two McLarens, two Ferraris, and two Mercedes. There must be two Red Bulls immediately.
However, Motorsport claims that this is “wide of the mark,” given how unimpressive the Australian has been since returning to the F1 grid on a full-time basis.
However, Lawson’s scheduled filming day excursion has now given rise to new speculation suggesting that the Kiwi would be a potential Verstappen colleague.
During a Pirelli tire test at Silverstone a year ago, Ricciardo performed well enough to persuade Red Bull to swap Nyck de Vries for him.