Christian Horner and Helmut Marko are reportedly at odds over Red Bull’s driver line-up for 2025, but in both officials’ preferred outcomes, Sergio Perez’s future looks to rest outside of Milton Keynes.
Perez is contracted with Red Bull until the end of the 2026 season, but a miserable 2024 campaign has placed his immediate future into question. The six-time Grand Prix winner is without a podium finish in his last 16 races and has slipped to eighth in the Drivers’ Championship standings, while his team-mate leads the way.
This dip in performance is having a significant impact on Red Bull, who now sit behind both McLaren and Ferrari in the Constructors’ Championship. Dropping from first to third comes with a financial hit in the region of £15.5 million ($20), but with a more competitive team-mate for Max Verstappen, this could have been avoided.
It is public knowledge that Red Bull are weighing up their options to replace Perez, but a number of different candidates have been named. According to Motorsport Italy, the most likely teammates for Verstappen next year are Franco Colapinto and Liam Lawson.
Despite interest in Yuki Tsunoda, Lawson has always seemed the most favoured driver among the Red Bull junior stable, but Colapinto’s performances since replacing Logan Sargeant at Williams have been significant enough to throw his name into the conversation.
The report states that Marko is set on pairing Verstappen with Lawson at Red Bull with Tsunoda remaining at VCARB for the 2025 campaign. This would mean that either Colapinto or Formula Two championship contender Isack Hadjar would join the Japanese racer in the sister team.
Horner, on the other hand, has different ideas. The team principal has reportedly seen enough from Colapinto in his first six Grands Prix to warrant partnering him with Verstappen for the 2025 season.
In this timeline, Lawson and Tsunoda would make up the VCARB line-up with Hadjar consigned to a year on the sidelines as a test and reserve driver, much in the same way the team’s incumbent New Zealander operated in 2024 prior to Daniel Ricciardo’s departure.
In either circumstance, the outcome for Perez is the same – an early exit from his Red Bull contract. Reports from Marca earlier this week suggested that he will stay with the team after signing lucrative new sponsorship agreements, but his performances are proving hard for Horner and Marko to ignore.
