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At the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed, Red Bull Racing driver Max Verstappen hinted at a future partnership with Daniel Ricciardo. This comes amidst speculation about his current teammate Sergio Perez's future at the team.
Earlier this season, Perez was given a two-year extension on his current contract. However, that decsion has been overshadowed by his disappointing performances since. While Verstappen has been battling for wins at the top, Perez has struggled for points. After retiring in Monaco and Canada, he finished P8 in Spain and P7 in Austria. A P17 finish at Silverstone followed this.
Daniel Ricciardo has emerged as a potential replacement for Sergio Perez at Red Bull. While no official confirmation was received on this, Max Verstappen shared an interesting chain of thoughts at the Goodwood Festival of Speed earlier. He was asked by the interviewer if he would return to race at FOS, following which he said,
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"Yeah, we will give it a go, maybe together with Daniel Ricciardo, we'll be good fun in one car."
It was rumored that Sergio Perez had received a contract ultimatum, requiring him to finish the Belgian Grand Prix within 100 points of Max Verstappen. With only one race remaining, the gap between the two drivers is 137 points.
Red Bull team principal acknowledges the need for both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez to perform amidst risk of losing constructor's title
Although Max Verstappen is leading the driver's championship, other teams have proven to be stronger in the overall competition. McLaren, Ferrari, and Mercedes have all won races so far in the season, promising a tough battle in the world championship.
Sergio Perez's string of disappointing performances is putting a dent in Red Bull's lead in the constructors' championship. As such, team principal Christian Horner was 'frustrated' after his recent Q1 elimination at Silverstone.
"Well, of course, it's frustrating when both of your cars aren't performing collectively. And I think that it's frustrating to lose Checo in Q1 yesterday. He'd missed FP1 because of Isack Hajar driving. He'd had a decent FP2. We felt that he should have been around the top six. And then to lose that car in Q1 was very frustrating. That's where we're at," Horner said according to GP Blog.
Red Bull's RB20's dominance seems to be waning. McLaren has caught up much faster than anticipated, and Ferrari and Mercedes are following on the same path. With this rising threat, Horner feels that both drivers, Verstappen and Perez, need to perform at their best to maintain their lead in the championship.
"They [McLaren] took seven points out of us today. It's something that we're acutely aware of that we need to win the Constructors' Championship. You need both cars scoring," he added.
