BREAKINGNEWS:If Red Bull is giving up on Perez, it needs to let go of its fears.

It’s time Red Bull went after the driver it passed over a little more than a month ago, given the dearth of genuinely inspirational candidates from whom to choose Max Verstappen’s teammate and the painful erosion of its car advantage.

Even though Sergio Perez had just finished two weekends with four points apiece, Red Bull gave him a new two-year contract and essentially rejected Carlos Sainz, forcing him to choose between Sauber, Williams, and Alpine.

But since then, as Sainz has become frozen in indecision (with the potential carrot of a Mercedes seat dangled in front of him), Perez’s mini-slump now looks like the worst version of his regular mid-season Red Bull dip.

Red Bull and Perez are being punished more than ever for that poor run of form now that Mercedes, Ferrari and McLaren have at various points this year all had cars to beat it with.

This has unavoidably forced Red Bull to consider its options in the event that it chooses to fire Perez well in advance of the expiration of his current contract—a move made possible by a break clause that is said to need Perez to finish 100 points behind Verstappen.

While Daniel Ricciardo, Yuki Tsunoda’s RB teammate, still doesn’t seem willing to be promoted to the senior team by Red Bull, he could be a possibility if he can maintain a strong run of form during the summer break. Liam Lawson, who tested the 2024 Red Bull this week, is also in this category.

The problem is that, as has been the case since Lewis Hamilton chose to leave Mercedes in order to accept the Ferrari seat held by Sainz, there is still a considerably superior contender outside the Red Bull family.

SAINZ’S CASE

In their four years as Ferrari teammates, Sainz and Charles Leclerc have been a fantastic combination. He was really unlucky that one of the three drivers on the grid who he would have been dropped for wanted to take his place.

His 2024 season has been outstanding, with his triumph in Melbourne upon his return from missing Jeddah due to appendicitis being the clear highlight.

However, there have also been a lot of other outstanding performances. With a qualifying average of 5.18 to 5.25 for Leclerc, he has a tiny edge over one of the top drivers in Formula One over the course of a lap, and he has once again appeared to be the superior driver during Ferrari’s

His qualifying advantage and capacity to dig deep when the driver feels that the car is not performing to his satisfaction would make him an invaluable addition to Red Bull and could allow him to do what Perez, Alex Albon, and Pierre Gasly have all failed to do.

You may learn everything there is to know about Sainz’s mental toughness from his exceptional performance even though he knows that his team doesn’t want him anymore and from his successful recovery from appendicitis.

Even though Ricciardo’s Red Bull runs may perhaps surpass Sainz’s greatest Ferrari runs, Ricciardo isn’t the same driver as he was in 2014–16.

While he has shown bursts of pace in 2024, Ricciardo, 35, has not shown the consistency that would justify choosing him above Sainz, 29.

Age is a concern because Red Bull has to think about what would happen if Verstappen made a shocking departure from the team before his contract expires in 2028.

It cannot rely on Perez, Ricciardo, Lawson, and a driver it doesn’t believe can compete in its senior team at Tsunoda.

Red Bull may, of course, go elsewhere at that point, but it might be difficult to find a suitable replacement for its star drivers, as many of them have committed long-term contracts to their teams.

Red Bull’s Verstappen-Sainz combination would allow RB to revert to a junior squad and try out all-rookie lineups with the assurance that the starting lineup is secure. A good place to start would be with formal plans for people like Arvid Lindblad and Isack Hadjar.

Red Bull is considering promoting Lawson directly to the senior team as a result of his 2024 Red Bull test.

It begs the question, though: given Lawson’s phenomenal performance during his five races last year, why was Red Bull content to keep him out of contention for 2024?