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Helmut Marko's recent comments have more than merely indicated that Sergio Perez's future might not lie with Red Bull.
Marko has not been too complimentary of Perez this season. A lot of it has to do with the Mexican not having the best of seasons. He's struggled a lot in qualifying this season and that has led to a string of poor results.
While Sergio Perez did get a podium in Monza and was the best of the rest, Helmut Marko seems to have made up his mind. Not only that, Perez himself dropped a hint in the Spanish press when he said that he would be open to a seat at a different team if his future does not work out at Red Bull.
In all of this though, there's one aspect that the team needs to be careful about, something where it has been at fault even in the past. Red Bull needs to be more careful and less hasty with its decision to drop Perez and place another driver on the team.
Who will replace Sergio Perez?
The biggest issue with a potential hasty dismissal of Sergio Perez is going to be the succession program. Unfortunately for Red Bull, there is no succession program in place. While the team had tried to put one in motion, the Daniel Ricciardo incident in Zandvoort led to it getting stalled in the meantime.
It does appear now that Ricciardo was one driver that Red Bull was truly eyeing to be Max Verstappen's teammate in 2024. He was very impressive in the simulator and the in-season test, and the Australian's first impressions in Hungary were nothing to scoff at either.
Ricciardo would have been given a 10-race period in the second half of the season to prove to the team that he could be a worthy successor to Sergio Perez. If he established himself to be superior to Yuki Tsunoda in AlphaTauri in that time, the Red Bull seat would have been his.
Unfortunately, that has not happened as the crash in Zandvoort means Daniel Ricciardo will be out of action for the next few races. This does throw a wrench in the plans as the other two drivers at AlphaTauri are not what Red Bull would want as a replacement for Sergio Perez.
Tsunoda is as much a Honda prodigy as he is a Red Bull driver and it does appear that the Japanese driver will be shipped off once the partnership ends. On the other hand, we have Liam Lawson who is still wet behind the ears to stake a claim at the seat in the senior team.
Lando Norris alongside Max Verstappen is a grave mistake
One name that has been doing the rounds far too often recently as a potential Max Verstappen teammate is Lando Norris. He's young, he's quick and he should certainly be considered as an upgrade to Sergio Perez.
Having said that, it would be a grave mistake to pick two elite talents in the same team, especially if the team is challenging for the title. There will be too many scenarios where the two drivers will be fighting against each other on the same piece of tarmac.
Not only that, there will be plenty of races where one gets the better of the other, and that could make the relationship abrasive.
Such a situation will in turn make it hard for the team to work towards a united front when it is being stretched in different sides by the two drivers. While Norris in isolation is an upgrade, that's not the case overall because the team environment could struggle big time.
Conclusion
Sergio Perez's days might be numbered at Red Bull and there's hardly any doubt about that in the eyes of many. However, the team needs to be wary of going through the succession in haste and without doing its due diligence.
Red Bull might be looking for a new driver alongside Max Verstappen and have a few options on their shortlist as well. Regardless, they simply cannot afford to go through the process impulsively and without proper consideration of what needs to be done.
