Red Bull set to axe Perez and overhaul its driver line-up in 2025

Red Bull might completely overhaul their driver line-ups for next year, with the energy drink company set to change their driver pairing both at Red Bull and the Visa Cash RB outfit.

Having struggled for pure pace in the majority of the qualifying sessions this year, Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull has been hanging in the balance for long months.

The Guadalajara-born driver joined Red Bull in 2021, and helped his team-mate Max Verstappen win his first championship title that year, playing a pivotal role at the title-deciding 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

However, he has failed to deliver a consistent performance over the last couple of years. Perez has won five races with Red Bull, and finished second in the Drivers’ Championship last year, but he has endured periods during which he simply struggled for outright pace in qualifying.

After a strong start to the the 2024 season, Red Bull elected to extend his contract by a further two years which would see Perez race for the Milton Keynes-based outfit until at least the end of the 2026 F1 season. However, the Mexican struggled for pace after his contract extension.

Red Bull has admitted that they will stage an important meeting after the Abu Dhabi season finale, when they make the final decision over their line-ups of their two teams.

RB driver Yuki Tsunoda will test a current Red Bull F1 car for the first time during tomorrow’s post season Pirelli tyre test. Asked about the target with the test, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner denied that the test would be an evaluation run for the Japanese driver.

“First of all, the test with Yuki has been planned for some time. So it’s been on the cards for, I think, three months or something like that. So that’s something that’s been scheduled. Now, obviously, Checo is our driver. He remains our driver, contracted to the team.

Over the past days, it has emerged that Red Bull are set to make a complete overhaul to their line ups of both their teams. It is believed that Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda will step up to replace Perez, with the New-Zealander tipped to be the more obvious candidate.

Should Lawson partner Verstappen at Red Bull as a replacement for Perez, F2 driver Isack Hajdar, who finished second in this year’s F2 championship behind Haas-bound Gabriel Bortoleto, will make his F1 debut at the Visa Cash RB team.

Speaking of the process, Horner confirmed important talks for the coming days: “And obviously, this season hasn’t gone to anyone’s plan, particularly with Checo’s performance and since Monaco, it’s been very, very tough for him.

“And so inevitably, once we get this race out of the way, we’ll sit down and discuss the future. But Checo has been a very important part of our team. He’s done a tremendous job for us.

“If you think back, you know, only three years to that 2021 final, you know, two Constructors’ Championship that he’s contributed to as well. So there’s huge respect for Checo within the team and nobody likes to see him struggling like the way he has. And, you know, we’ll sit down and discuss things after the season.

Asked whether Red Bull have already made the final decision regarding their driver line-ups of their two teams, Horner denied that the team has already made up its mind.

“We’re fortunate that we’ve got a tremendous pool of talent. It was good to see Isack Hadjar getting a run out as well in free practice there. We’ve got two talented drivers in VCARB.

“But until the situation is clear with Sergio and what he wants to do, everything else is purely speculation,” concluded Horner.