Rumor: Ricciardo To Have Opportunity Of Replacing Perez Written In His Contract

Saturday, 02 December 2023 at 22:00

F1 journalist Joe Saward wrote in his recent blog Daniel Ricciardo might potentially have a clause in his contract talking about the replacement of Sergio Perez in Red Bull.

Multiple fans and F1 experts doubted Sergio Perez and his future in Red Bull throughout the 2024 season as he struggled to perform in clearly dominant cars on multiple occasions.

While it was speculated Perez might be replaced by one of the AlphaTauri drivers, the team principal, Christian Horner, said the only ones putting question marks over his head are the media.

Horner insured Perez will indeed drive for Red Bull in 2024. It was also confirmed by numerous other people, including Helmut Marko, Perez's father Antonio, and the Mexican driver himself.

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The 33-year-old improved his performances towards the end of the season and secured second place in the Drivers' Championship, which seemed to kill all the rumors.

However, F1 journalist Joe Saward restarted all the rumors with his recent article in which he wrote Daniel Ricciardo apparently has a provision in his contract that describes possibly switching to Red Bull in the 2024 season. Saward wrote:

"While the driver line-up in 2024 will be Daniel Ricciardo and Yuki Tsunoda, informed sources suggest that there is a provision in Ricciardo’s contract for him to switch into Red Bull Racing after the early races next year if Sergio Perez does not up his game. I hear that if that happens, Daniel’s salary will triple, and Liam Lawson will come in to replace him."

While this is all pure speculation, competitors might get closer to Red Bull next season, and if that happens, Red Bull will need two experienced drivers performing at the top of their game.

At the end of the day, Max Verstappen broke a record for the biggest point gap between the first and the second place (held by Perez) in the Drivers' Championship this season.

That is not the record that Red Bull would want to break again next year. Do you think Ricciardo would perform better than Perez?