{"id":25878,"date":"2024-10-28T04:22:35","date_gmt":"2024-10-28T08:22:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=25878"},"modified":"2024-10-28T04:26:24","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T08:26:24","slug":"f1-news-sergio-perez-could-be-replaced-before-season-ends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/28\/f1-news-sergio-perez-could-be-replaced-before-season-ends\/","title":{"rendered":"F1 News: Sergio Perez could be replaced before season ends"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull team principal <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/09\/09\/christian-horner-admits-red-bull-have-hit-the-ceiling\/\" target=\"_self\">Christian Horner<\/a> cannot guarantee that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/25\/sergio-perez-red-bull-on-top-of-main-performance-issue\/\" target=\"_self\">Sergio Perez<\/a> will finish the season with the team. After another poor performance, the 34-year-old&#8217;s F1 career is hanging by a thread.<\/p>\n<h2>Red Bull losing patience with Sergio Perez<\/h2>\n<p>The Mexican GP was yet another disappointing race for Perez. After qualifying at the back on Saturday, he failed to make any progress from his starting position.<\/p>\n<p>His troubles began when he was penalised for a false start &#8211; though his difficulties would not end there.<\/p>\n<p>Sergio Perez then found himself in a duel with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/17\/liam-lawson-reveals-red-bull-criteria-for-2025-promotion\/\" target=\"_self\">Liam Lawson<\/a>. The result of this battle was sidepod damage for the Red Bull driver, essentially ending any chance of points.<\/p>\n<p>Perez ended the race in 17th place &#8211; last of all classified finishers.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to the media post-race, Christian Horner didn&#8217;t pull his punches when asked about Perez&#8217;s future:<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;Look, it&#8217;s a performance-based business,&#8221; <\/em>he told Jenna Fryer.<\/p>\n<p><em>&#8220;There comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a id=\"Ts27UMCVSXdYI5T-B2UKLQ\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2181402328\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'Ts27UMCVSXdYI5T-B2UKLQ',sig:'HlEDTjnbHNOWv3eEy5WVnuWMWPkSPXDGJIyz37K_1GQ=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2181402328',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Lawson and Tsunoda ready and waiting<\/h3>\n<p>At this stage, the question is when &#8211; not if &#8211; Sergio Perez is going to be replaced. His performances have consistently poor for the last two seasons.<\/p>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/27\/carlos-sainz-admits-to-not-very-good-feeling-about-ferrari-exit\/\" target=\"_self\">Ferrari<\/a> and McLaren both capable of winning races with both drivers, Perez has become a liability for Red Bull.<\/p>\n<p>The defending Champions have been relegated to 3rd in the teams&#8217; Championship &#8211; a consequence of refusing to swap Perez. In reality, this decision should have been taken last year.<\/p>\n<p>Even in a dominant RB20, the Mexican driver struggled to get consistent podium finishes. As other teams have caught up, he generally finds himself at the lower end of the points.<\/p>\n<p>Because of this, Red Bull are genuinely considering a change before the season finale in Abu Dhabi. Christian Horner&#8217;s comments are clear evidence of this.<\/p>\n<p>The Austrian team have two obvious alternatives, <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/21\/liam-lawson-on-track-for-red-bull-promotion\/\" target=\"_self\">Lawson<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2024\/10\/27\/helmut-marko-issues-damming-yuki-tsunoda-verdict\/\" target=\"_self\">Tsunoda<\/a>, that can be promoted with minimal inconvenience.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"kC2aPkLZTS5XvZAPCjAipg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/2181363944\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'kC2aPkLZTS5XvZAPCjAipg',sig:'0vcmyicZGxJ-Cbe2loYBtag0LTVDTS97Ky2lwFVqHYk=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'2181363944',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Considering that Sergio Perez has not finished in the top 5 since the Miami GP (held in early May) there is absolutely no risk in making a change.<\/p>\n<p>If anything, regardless of who drives alongside Verstappen, Ferrari and McLaren will finish comfortably ahead of Red Bull in the standings.<\/p>\n<p>This gives Christian Horner&#8217;s team a chance to assess Tsunoda or Lawson without any significant risk. It represents the team&#8217;s best chance to understand who is best-suited to become Max Verstappen&#8217;s next teammate.<\/p>\n<p>Only a few months ago, in the build-up to the summer break, the consensus was that Perez would be replaced. Then, unexpectedly, the Austrian outfit decided to retain him.<\/p>\n<p>However, with four rounds left to go, another U-turn from Red Bull is unlikely. Sergio Perez&#8217;s days at Milton Keynes appear increasingly numbered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Red Bull team principal Christian Horner cannot guarantee that Sergio Perez will finish the season with the team. After another poor performance, the 34-year-old&#8217;s F1 career is hanging by a thread. Red Bull losing patience with Sergio Perez The Mexican GP was yet another disappointing race for Perez. After qualifying at the back on Saturday, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":25888,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2220,68,1095,78],"class_list":["post-25878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-2024-formula-1-season","tag-f1","tag-mexican-gp","tag-red-bull-racing"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}