F1 News: Insider Names Ideal Sergio Perez Replacement At Red Bull - "Perfect Number 2 To Max"
F1 journalist and former team manager Peter Windsor believes Nico Hulkenberg would be the best driver to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull.
This comes as rumours continue to swirl over Perez's future with the team. The RB19 is clearly the dominant car by the grid on a long way and whilst Max Verstappen is gliding through the Grand Prix weekends further extending his lead in the championship, Perez is getting closer to Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton, who are third and fourth in the championship, than Verstappen.
Lando Norris, Alex Albon, Daniel Ricciardo, and Yuki Tsunoda have all been mentioned as potential replacements for the Mexican driver. However, Windsor believes that Hulkenberg would be a better fit.
Perez is in contract with the Austrian team until the end of 2024, although some believe that this could be ended early by Red Bull.
During a video on his YouTube channel, Windsor analysed the situation.
“Sergio Perez in the other Red Bull struggled in Q1, struggled in Q2, couldn’t get temperatures right on the slick or on the intermediate, always seemed to be in traffic at the wrong place at the wrong time and that was the difference.
“You could say: ‘Why didn’t Red Bull bring Sergio Perez into that?’
“Well, there are two sides of the garage at Red Bull as we know going back to the Mark Webber/Sebastian Vettel days and it’s nothing to do with wanting to favour Max or favour Sergio Perez.
“It’s how to get the best from both groups in the garage and on this occasion Sergio Perez just couldn’t get the tyres to work, pretty much as we saw in Melbourne and then in qualifying in the Spanish Grand Prix, so [a] very disappointing moment for Red Bull with that performance again.
Hulkenberg had a fantastic qualifying ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, putting himself second fastest by the end of the session. Unfortunately, the Haas driver was given a 3-place grid penalty for speeding under the red flag so started in fifth.
Windsor continued:
“You’ve got to think, when they look at the times, do they think: ‘Well, why aren’t we running Nico Hulkenberg in the other car?’
“Talk about the perfect number two to Max Verstappen. He wouldn’t want to say number two, of course. Great job again by Nico.
“How many times have we seen him go well in these semi-wet conditions, going right back to that pole he had in Brazil for Williams? Just a brilliant drive right out of the box.
“A little bit like Max, straight out and doing that lap time at the beginning of Q3. And just to get through [from] Q2 was a major achievement. His team-mate, Kevin Magnussen, wasn’t able to do that.”