It may still be some way out, but there’s already intrigue about what Red Bull will do with their second seat in 2025; Assessing Daniel Ricciardo’s early steps back in F1, the state of play for Sergio Perez, and who else could be on their radar for two seasons’ time
Monday 14 August 2023 09:51, UK
"Red Bull is the dream."
It's unusual to see the starting gun for a particular race seat fired so early and so publicly but that's what effectively happened for 2025 when Daniel Ricciardo returned to the Formula 1 grid last month.
Back with AlphaTauri for at least the rest of this season after seven months on the sidelines, the 'dream' seat Ricciardo referred to is one at Red Bull's senior team next to Max Verstappen.
The one that was once his and is now Sergio Perez's.
While Verstappen is on a long-term deal to 2028, Perez's contract expires at the end of 2024.
"This already feels like something pretty amazing," Ricciardo told Sky Sports F1 on his return to AlphaTauri, the Italian team where he first drove as a young rising star in 2012-13.
"So if I was ever to get back in that [Red Bull] seat one day, I think I said a while ago it would be like the fairy-tale ending. It would feel like that."
But Ricciardo, who over the past year has experienced some of the harsher realities of life as an F1 driver to go with the many spoils that a career as an eight-time race winner has brought, also acknowledged: "This sport is not about fairy-tales, it's about performance.
"That's my aim here. Do that and then see where the wind takes me."
A sample of two races in a car he had never previously driven on two very different tracks is not much to go on, but Ricciardo's early forays back in the F1 field have been solid.
Indeed, his initial outing in the troublesome AT04 at the Hungaroring can be classed as a little better than that. Ricciardo outqualified new team-mate Yuki Tsuonda first time out, reaching Q2, and then beat the Japanese driver in the race too with a 13th-place finish.
But the going was a little tougher amid the mixed-weather weekend that followed at Spa-Francorchamps.
With Tsunoda on good form in Friday qualifying, the 23-year-old drove a fine race on the Sunday to 10th place and a rare point in the team's poor season. Ricciardo, meanwhile, dropped out in Q1 after a lap-time deletion and that ensured Sunday was tough from there in traffic as any tangible progress up the field never materialised.
The Saturday Sprint events were better; Ricciardo fought on the fringes of the top-10, although tyre wear put pay to any hope of a point in the end.
Reflecting on the final result at the end of the weekend, the 34-year-old said: "The reality is, these were my first dry laps in this car on this track, and I don't know this car that well yet, so I still felt there was a little missing, but we'll figure it out.
"Many are now looking forward to a well-deserved holiday, but the situation is slightly different for me as the break is a good chance for me to keep working behind the scenes. After a few days off, I'll spend time in the gym and use my days training, to be able to further improve on my race fitness."
We'll start to get a better read on Ricciardo's form and his match-up versus Tsunoda in the 10 races after the break, starting at Zandvoort and the Dutch GP on August 25-27 live on Sky Sports.
As the man in possession for at least the next 16 months for the seat Ricciardo wants, Sergio Perez certainly has it in his own hands to create a compelling case for a contract extension long before we get to January 2025.
Driving the grid's dominant car, albeit next to the relentless winning machine that is Verstappen, should give the Mexican ample opportunity to compete for more victories and show that the form that saw him impressively triumph in two of this season's first four rounds can be seen on a more regular basis. Perez's two-and-a-half years at Red Bull have largely been successful, and his presence in the team is also unescapably useful commercially for them in the Mexican market.
But the difficulties of recent months amid a succession of early qualifying exits has inevitably led to speculation about how secure his long-term future is beyond that present deal.
Speaking to Sky Sports News at the Hungarian GP, team boss Horner said: "Checo is hugely popular in the team. Let's not forget what he did in '21. His contribution to our Constructors' Championship last year. He is second in the world championship this year. He's the only other driver to have won a race this year, in the two grands prix that he's won.
"Obviously, our absolute primary objective is to get Checo firing on all cylinders on a Saturday, which I'm sure he is going to do.
"So nobody is writing off Checo."
Perez signed off for the summer with a second place to Verstappen in Belgium, his best race result for almost three months.
This was still 22 seconds adrift of the lead car, who had started four places behind him on the grid, but Perez left Spa feeling positive about the rest of the season: "I really look forward to not leaving the podium anymore from now until the end of the year. It's been a bit of a rough patch, but I think we overcome [it]."
"It's just the position that we're in it's great to have a lot of interest," revealed Horner to Sky Sports News.
"And it's not just from those drivers [Perez and Ricciardo] - it's from drivers outside our spectrum as well regarding 2025."
Which leads on to the question as to who else could be in the conversation come decision time for that seat next to Verstappen longer-term....
Lando Norris
Is Norris destined for Red Bull at some point in his F1 future? The Lando-to-Red Bull stories have popped up with reasonable regularity over the past 18 months, even appearing again around the British GP last month. The fact the two sides have spoken in the past is well known; Norris acknowledged as much after signing his most-recent long-term McLaren contract, as did Horner.
That McLaren deal does run to the end of 2025, so Norris certainly won't be a 'free agent' when Red Bull come to deciding who partners Verstappen for that year. McLaren's own recent upsurge in form also points promisingly for the future of their own union with the Briton speaking recently about how special it would be to help the team deliver a return to winning races having put in the hard yards with them to get back to the front.
"I think as long as we keep doing that [providing a strong car], then he'll stick around," said McLaren chief executive Zak Brown recently.
While good friends with Verstappen, there's also the question of whether such a partnership between two young hugely-talented drivers would ultimately prove combustible on and off track.
Yuki Tsunoda
The championship table may not particularly reflect it, but Yuki Tsunoda is quietly going about putting together an impressive season, his third in F1 at AlphaTauri. His case for more obvious recognition is being stymied somewhat by the disappointing and inconsistent form of the team's 2023 car, which has a grid-worst three points to show for itself so far. The positive for Tsunoda is that they have all been scored by him, the most recent the result of a fine drive at Spa-Francorchamps.
A 100 per cent race-day finishing record this year points to the 23-year-old's increased reliability to deliver consistently. In many cases, the arrival of the highly-experienced Ricciardo next to him is a win-win. Should he be able to get the better of the Australian, then a 2025 path to the senior Red Bull team would make his case for promotion very compelling. Whether or not Honda's switch of allegiances to Aston Martin in 2026 impacts his future remains to be seen.
Liam Lawson
New Zealander Liam Lawson has been viewed for a while as the next Red Bull young driver most likely to take the step up to F1. The fact it hasn't happened yet at AlphaTauri suggests Lawson being in an A-list Red Bull seat as soon as 18 months' time is unlikely, even if he joined the F1 grid next season.
The 21-year-old has been placed in Japan's competitive Super Formula series for this year - a journey previously taken by Pierre Gasly - after winning plenty of races, albeit not a title, in F2, F3 and DTM over recent seasons. He is Red Bull's official reserve driver, and has tested for both their F1 teams, but they've clearly not been absolutely convinced to this point at least that he's ready for the top level yet.
Charles Leclerc
Out of contract at the end of 2024, any possibility of Leclerc leaving Ferrari to form a blockbuster partnership with Verstappen at Red Bull would be the stuff of promotional dreams. The reality in such situations though is often more sobering and so the smart money certainly isn't on Leclerc joining Red Bull.
Back in June, Leclerc said that he and Ferrari were "slowly" starting to discuss the future, with the Scuderia surely determined to keep the young star and a driver they effectively anointed as the future when they signed him to a five-year deal back in late 2019. Stranger things have happened, but this transfer might just be pushing it.
Alex Albon
Three years on from losing his seat to Perez, Albon has been rebuilding his confidence and reputation very nicely at Williams. On a long-term deal at Grove, his career is back on the up and the 27-year-old is once more showing the kind of form that made Red Bull promote him after just half a season in F1 at Toro Rosso in the first place.
Oscar Piastri
If Red Bull were unable to prise one McLaren young protege away, what about the other? Such a suggestion that they could come knocking was put to the rookie, who is managed by former Red Bull driver Mark Webber, just before the summer break. "It's flattering to have those comments," replied Piastri. "I'm very happy where I am. But yeah, it's always nice to be talked about in those kinds of ways."
Formula 1 returns after the summer break with the Dutch GP and all sessions will be live on Sky Sports F1 on August 25-27. Stream Sky Sports F1 and more with NOW
