Damon Hill names the driver he’s now almost certain Red Bull will replace Sergio Perez with

Follow us on Google Discover

Sergio Perez’s position within Red Bull is looking increasingly under threat as the end of the 2024 F1 season nears.

Nearly all of the seats on the 2025 grid are now taken up after Sauber announced Gabriel Bortoleto, but there is still some ambiguity over Red Bull’s plans.

Perez is under increasing pressure at Red Bull to deliver better results after failing to finish on the podium since the Miami Grand Prix Sprint race, or inside the top three of a Grand Prix since China.

With three races remaining, it looks like Max Verstappen could cling on to the Drivers’ Championship for a fourth time but Red Bull looks set to lose out on the Constructors’ title due to Perez’s inconsistencies.

Red Bull is now closely reviewing Perez’s contract to see if they can release him before the 2025 season. Damon Hill has named which driver he thinks they will replace him with when speaking on the F1 Nation podcast.

Damon Hill says he would like to see Red Bull replace Sergio Perez with Carlos Sainz

Red Bull has a range of drivers they could utilise in place of Perez, with Franco Colapinto also recently on their radar after impressing in the handful of races he’s contested with Williams.

Christian Horner also did not rule out George Russell when discussing future driver lineups, while Hill believes Red Bull should have moved on another driver earlier.

Hill: “I would have put Carlos Sainz there, but that’s not going to happen. So I think it’s Liam Lawson, almost certainly because they’ve got experience of him.

“This is where you get into the murky world of, there may be some big money. And if that’s the case, then it could be Colapinto. But I think he’s a little bit inexperienced. So you might see him at Racing Bulls.”

Former F1 driver Luciano Burti also agreed with Hill and questioned why Red Bull didn’t go with the Spaniard: “I would go for Lawson, but I do agree with Damon. I don’t know why Red Bull didn’t want to give Sainz a chance.”

Liam Lawson likeliest candidate to replace Sergio Perez

Having signed Perez to a contract for 2025 in May earlier this year, Red Bull now faces a dilemma. The team did so on the basis that he could meet certain performance targets, but now he is reportedly in breach of that agreement.

Perez himself has acknowledged that his career is ‘coming to an end’ having made his F1 debut in 2011, while Formula E chief Alberto Longo, who ran him in GP2 (now F2), believes F1 has been ‘tremendously unfair’ to the Mexican.

READ MORE: Red Bull driver Sergio Perez’s life outside F1 from net worth to nickname

It would cost Red Bull around £10 million to buy Perez out of a contract next year according to reports, with the most likely candidate being Liam Lawson.

This is because there are doubts over Yuki Tsunoda’s ability to step up to the big team, plus RB has him contracted for the 2025 season.