Formula 1 silly season kicked off in an explosive way last week when Alpha Tauri announced it was immediately firing rookie Nyck de Vries in favor of veteran Daniel Ricciardo. Ricciardo was sitting out the 2023 season after a disastrous stint with McLaren that ended with the team buying him out of his contract for 2024, and picked up a reserve roll with Red Bull, the team with which he enjoyed the most success. Now, Ricciardo is at Red Bull's sister team, and unsurprisingly, his aims are much higher.
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner detailed this on the most recent episode F1 Nation, the official podcast for the series. "Obviously our drivers are going to be Max [Verstappen] and Checo [Perez] next year but it's always good to have talent in reserve and I think Daniel... firmly wants to be pitching for that 2025 Red Bull seat," Horner said. "That's his goal and objective, and by going to Alpha Tauri, he sees that as his best route of stating his case for 2025."
Perez is contracted with Red Bull through 2024, but has struggled this year, missing five Q3 appearances in a row. He's second to Verstappen in the standings, but a distant 99 points behind. Perez only has two wins and three additional podiums in what is very clearly the best car on the grid by far. Verstappen meanwhile has only finished second in two races, the two Perez won. With 255 points, Verstappen is basically winning the Constructor's title for Red Bull on his own, and while Mercedes is far behind Red Bull's 411-point total with 203 points, the competition is catching this dominant team. If Perez starts costing Red Bull the chance to win the Constructor's championship in the future, the team would likely want to seek someone else's services.
Ricciardo is no doubt very happy to be back on the grid with Alpha Tauri, but he won't be content driving the worst car on the grid. He wants badly to be at a top team, fighting for wins again, and maybe even a title of his own. And though Perez is contracted for 2024, contracts don't mean a ton in the world of F1, as Ricciardo himself proved. He may yet get that Red Bull seat even sooner.
On the podcast, Horner was full of praise for Ricciardo. He said his early simulator work with the team was iffy, but he soon returned to form, and at a tire test last week in Silverstone, Ricciardo apparently set a good enough time to qualify on the front row for the British Grand Prix.
In other words, the pressure's on Perez to prove he's worthy.
A car enthusiast since childhood, Chris Perkins is Road & Track's engineering nerd and Porsche apologist. He joined the staff in 2016 and no one has figured out a way to fire him since. He street-parks a Porsche Boxster in Brooklyn, New York, much to the horror of everyone who sees the car, not least the author himself. He also insists he's not a convertible person, despite owning three.
