Perez Making 'Good Case Not To Be Replaced' Chandhok Suggests

Thursday, 11 April 2024 at 16:54

According to former F1 driver Karun Chandhok, Sergio Perez is currently "making good case" not to be replaced at Red Bull next season.

Three second-place finishes and one fifth-place finish; that's Sergio Perez's record after the first four rounds of the 2024 season in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and Japan.

While he wasn't able to outperform his teammate in any of the qualifying sessions or races so far (except for the one which Verstappen didn't finish), he has improved his performance compared to the end of the previous season.

In the last four races of 2023, Perez scored only one third-place, two fourth-place finishes, and one retirement after his own mistake in Mexico.

Red Bull then made it clear they would like to keep the 34-year-old, but he has to show significant improvement, and according to multiple experts, Checo is doing enough at the moment. Karun Chandhok told Sky Sports F1 podcast:

"The reality is [Sergio] Perez seems to have raised his game, his qualifying in Japan was the best I think we've seen in a very long time."

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In Japan, Perez almost outperformed his triple-world champion teammate in qualifying and then finished the race comfortably in second place.

Chandhok pointed out that the Mexican driver didn't take the one chance he had to score a win during the Australian Grand Prix, although it is important to mention that his car lost performance under unfortunate circumstances that hindered his progress.

"Obviously, Melbourne was the one where he needed to step up on a day where Max [Verstappen] had an issue and he didn't. So, that's a negative."

Nevertheless, the former F1 driver agrees with most experts, saying that if Checo can maintain this level of performance, Red Bull won't have too big of a reason to replace him in 2025.

"But broadly, he's started this season quite well. Now, he did the same last year and we'll now see if he can carry it on for the rest of the year. At the moment, he's making a pretty good case not to be replaced."