Red Bull set to announce Verstappen's team-mate in the coming days
Red Bull's motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has hinted that the Milton Keynes-based company will announce their driver line-ups at Red Bull and Racing Bulls in the coming days.
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.
On the eve of the season-closing Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, it emerged that Red Bull were set to make a complete overhaul to their line ups of both their teams. It has been suggested that Liam Lawson or Yuki Tsunoda will step up to replace Perez, with the New-Zealander tipped to be the more obvious candidate.
The Japanese driver even tested a current Red Bull F1 car for the first time during tje post-season Pirelli tyre test, while Red Bull's most promising young F2 driver Isack Hadjar piloted one of the VCARBs.
Should Lawson partner Verstappen at Red Bull as a replacement for Perez, the French driver, 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 to Speedweek.com, Red Bull's motorsport advisor Dr Helmut Marko has now confirmed that the Austrian company will make a final decision in the coming days.
"We will be announcing news in the next few days about what the driver pairing will look like next year. There is a lot of speculation and transfer fees are being mentioned that are complete nonsense.
The Austrian has also pinpointed the areas Red Bull needs to address in the coming weeks to regain its competitive level for the next season, singling out the handling characteristics of the car that should work in a wider operating window.
"I am sure that we will be facing a close battle at the top next year. That is normal in the last year of a regulation period. The field will be closer together. It is common practice in Formula 1 to copy successful concepts. And the longer the specifications remain stable, the more similar the cars will become. This automatically increases the level of performance.
"We will give it our all again next year. There will be some changes in the team, as there have been some departures. But we are well positioned and I believe that our team is capable of giving Max a car that will enable him to fight for the World Championship again. And we know what to do. This car needs a wider working window so that it doesn't immediately become unbalanced when there are slight temperature fluctuations or minor technical changes.
"That's exactly what our engineers are working on. Because 40 points of downforce is good, but four tenths on the stop track is what interests me and the driver. The handling must be predictable for the driver so that he can build up the necessary confidence.
"And since we have the fastest and best driver in the field in Max, it is only natural that we take his preferences into account when it comes to developing the car's handling characteristics. I am sure that as long as we give him a competitive car, he will stay at Red Bull Racing."
