Sergio "Checo" Perez has been criticised by some for recent relatively disappointing results for Red Bull. Photo / Don Kennedy
There are a number of drivers who will be fighting to retain or regain a Formula One seat when F1 returns to the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, for the Austrian Grand Prix.
The circuit in the Styrian Mountains, formerly known as the A1-Ring, is owned by the estate of the late Dietrich Mateschitz, the co-founder of the Red Bull business, who died in October last year. Mateschitz bought the circuit in 2004, and in 2005 bought out the Jaguar F1 team, to form the Red Bull team. He also acquired the Minardi team from Australian businessman Paul Stoddart, to form a sister F1 team, then known as Toro Rosso, but now racing as Alpha Tauri.
The drivers for the latter team are Yuki Tsunoda, and rookie Nyck de Vries. The Dutchman got the drive after his countryman, world champion Max Verstappen, whose victory in Canada was Red Bull’s 100th GP triumph, had suggested to De Vries that he contact Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko to try to get the Alpha Tauri drive.
It was a successful contact, and although De Vries had a one-off drive in 2022 with the Williams team at Monza, filling in for a sick Alex Albon and finishing ninth, he is considered a rookie.
His first five races this season did not go well, with his best finish being 14th in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. After he finished 18th in Miami, Marko warned him that unless he improved, he would lose the drive to either F2 driver Ayumu Iwasa, or Super Formula driver Liam Lawson. De Vries responded to the threat by finishing 12th at Monaco and received some praise from Marko.
“This was by far his best weekend for Alpha Tauri,” Marko said after that race.
“Nyck was much closer to Yuki than before. This is what I want to see from him.”
Marko has not issued any further threats to De Vries despite mediocre races in Spain and Canada, where he was 14th and 18th respectively, but he is a long way off scoring any points for the struggling team.
Tsunoda has fared much better, picking up one point in both Australia and Azerbaijan by finishing 10th. But those two points still mean Alpha Tauri are last of the 10 teams in F1, with Red Bull on top with 321 points and a lead over Mercedes of 154 points, with Aston Martin a further 13 points back. It will be frustrating for Marko that the two teams he acts as adviser for on behalf of Mateschitz’s estate bookend the Constructors’ championship.
The main talking point after the Canadian GP, where Verstappen took his sixth win in eight races, was the performance of his teammate, Sergio Perez, who finished sixth after qualifying 12th.
Defenders of Perez will quickly point out that he is the driver who won the other two races that Max didn’t, being Saudi Arabian and Azerbaijan. After winning the latter race, Perez, backed by his enthusiastic father, was signalling himself as a title contender.
Now, after eight races, he is 69 points behind Verstappen, almost the equivalent of three race victories, and only nine points ahead of Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has come to the defence of “Checo”, as the Mexican driver is affectionately called by most in the F1 fraternity.
“I think he’s had three difficult weekends, three difficult Saturdays: that then puts you on the back foot on a Sunday,” Horner noted.
“And we’ve seen what Checo is capable of, only a month or two ago. And I think he just needs to have a strong weekend to find that confidence. And then I’ve got no doubt he’ll be back.”
Verstappen has not exactly sprung to the defence of Perez, as Horner has. He was asked if his win in Canada was the only positive aspect for Red Bull.
“Well, if I wasn’t here today, obviously it would have been very different for the team,” Verstappen said. “That’s one way of looking at it. I wouldn’t be happy with not making Q3 three times in a row.”
When the difference between the two drivers was pointed out, Verstappen wasn’t buying into the discussion.
“But I’m not concerned about it either, the team must be working on that maybe, but you have to ask them. It’s not my problem.”
While there is so far no suggestion from Horner or Marko that Perez could be replaced next year, the media will happily speculate on who might replace Perez, just as they are in regard to Lance Stroll’s position at Aston Martin. Stroll is living in the shadow of two-time world champion Alonso, who has amassed six podiums in eight races and sits third in the drivers’ championship.
Lance has only finished ahead of Alonso in one race, Spain, where Alonso made a mistake in qualifying that compromised his race. But even then he signalled to the team he wouldn’t overtake Stroll in the closing stages even though he had fresher tyres and more speed to do so.
Alonso’s former McLaren teammate Jenson Button has commented on the dilemma facing Stroll, who started the season in Bahrain nursing a wrist injury from a cycling accident, yet still finished fourth, which remains his best result so far.
“Apart from [Spain] it’s been really difficult for him because he’s obviously been hurting - he’s had his injury and he’s up against his teammate, who’s Fernando Alonso,” Button said.
Aston Martin team principal Mike Krack has defended his under-fire driver, similarly to how Horner defended Perez.
“I think he did really well,” Krack said after Canada, where Stroll finished ninth, while Alonso was second.
“In qualifying he struggled with grip, and if you struggle like that, and you don’t have confidence, then it’s very difficult. I think he drove very well. If you are in a DRS train, it’s really hard. To come from 16th to ninth is a great achievement. On paper, it looks only ninth, and when your teammate finishes second, you think it’s not a good performance. But when you see where you’ve come from, I think it was very good.”
Ex-McLaren and Red Bull driver David Coulthard doesn’t agree with Krack.
“The stopwatch doesn’t lie, a brilliantly simple statement of truth,” Coulthard said.
“I’m not saying Lance isn’t good enough, he’s won everything all the way through his journey towards Formula 1. There have been some elements of misfortune in his run this year. But there’s a point where you can’t keep making excuses.”
Daniel Ricciardo is sitting on the pit wall as a Red Bull driver this season, having failed to find a race seat after being dropped by the McLaren team in favour of Oscar Piastri, but is unlikely to replace Perez by all accounts. Mick Schumacher suffered a similar fate to Ricciardo, losing the Haas drive to F1 returnee Nico Hulkenberg. Schumacher is the Mercedes reserve driver, and would obviously love to jump into Hamilton’s car if the latter doesn’t renew his Mercedes contract. Everyone expects the re-signing of Hamilton to be just a formality, but the longer it takes to put pen to paper, the greater the speculation on Hamilton’s future.
Hamilton has repeatedly said he plans to stay longer. “It’s just not set in stone how long. I plan on staying with Mercedes for the rest of my life, that’s a definite,” he said at the end of 2022.
“We had a good meeting just recently. They’re very complex, contracts. So it’s not just a simple driving contract.”
Apparently, Hamilton wants provision made for his Hamilton Commission, which is a diversity programme, the aim of which is to have at least 25 per cent of employees from a minority background. He also is said to have asked for at least a two-year contract extension and a £15 million ($31m) bonus if he wins another title. But it seems Mercedes management is not keen on adding to the rumoured £27.5m ($57m) they already pay him, which is quite a bit less than the £43m ($89.5m) Verstappen is said to be getting.
They are also said to be only interested in a one-year extension, and not prepared to meet another Hamilton demand, which is to become a Mercedes brand ambassador for 10 years.
Given Charles Leclerc is unhappy at Ferrari, Hamilton may be unwise to be making too many demands, especially given Mercedes are no longer the top team, but ahead of Ferrari currently.
In Austria this weekend, the possible coming and goings of drivers from rival team motorhomes will be watched with interest, because it’s about this time of the year the real “silly season” of driver movements begins.
It was in Austria last year that Sebastian Vettel announced his pending retirement from F1, and within two days, Alonso had swooped in and secured the two-year deal with Aston Martin that his Alpine team declined to give him, essentially because, at 41, he was considered too old. How wrong could Alpine have been, and are Mercedes on the verge of losing Hamilton for a similar reason?
The projected swap between Hamilton and Leclerc, denied by all parties, may not be mission impossible after all. If it is to happen, you can guarantee the producers of the Netflix series Drive to Survive will be all over it.