Surprise candidate emerges for Sergio Perez's replacement as Christian Horner doesn't rule out Red Bull academy driver

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has not ruled out academy driver Yuki Tsunoda as a potential replacement for Sergio Perez if they decide to do a driver swap in mid-season. The Mexican driver has been coming under pressure for the last couple of days recalls given his poor results on track since the Miami GP.

In his tough times, the Austrian team even extended his contract for two years which would see him race for them until the end of 2026, to provide further security and get his results to improve.

However, it is now being rumored that Red Bull might trigger some performance-related clauses from Sergio Perez's recent contract ahead of the mid-season break and replace him after the Belgian GP.

As per RacingNews365, Horner believed that they were keeping an eye on the situation and even tossed the name of RB's Yuki Tsunoda into the mix with Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson as potential replacements, saying:

"You can never rule anything out. We have options for multiple years on him because we believe he's a talent. He's a Red Bull Racing driver. He's on a Red Bull Racing contract. You never know. Maybe he'll get a test one day. You never know."

While speaking about the Japanese driver's progress in the 2024 season, Horner spoke about the influence of Ricciardo on his young teammate at RB, adding:

"I think he's benefited from having Daniel [Ricciardo] alongside him. He'll openly admit that he's learned from Daniel, in terms of having an experienced driver and how they interact with the team and the engineers," he added.

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Red Bull team boss gives his take on Sergio Perez's British GP

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner stated that it was 'unsustainable' for the team and Sergio Perez to not be scoring points in one of the fastest cars on the grid alongside Max Verstappen.

Speaking with Sky Sports, Horner spoke about the 34-year-old's P17 finish at the British GP and said:

"He knows it's unsustainable to not be scoring points. We have to be scoring points in that car. He knows his role and target. Nobody is more eager than Checo to find his form again."

"Of course, there's frustration when both of your cars aren't performing collectively. It was frustrating to lose Checo in Q1. We felt he should have been around the top six but to lose that car was very frustrating. It's something we are very acutely aware of. To win the constructors' we need both drivers," Horner added.

Sergio Perez is currently P6 in the Driver's Championship with 118 points, closely followed by the Mercedes pair of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton, who are on 111 and 110 points respectively in 12 races and three Sprints thus far.