Nyck de Vries could’ve replaced Sergio Perez to partner Max Verstappen at Red Bull, speculates Mercedes F1 boss

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said that former AlphaTauri driver Nyck de Vries could have been a candidate to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull next year.

The Dutch driver was unceremoniously dropped by the Austrian team just 10 races into his rookie F1 season with their junior team as he was consistently outperformed by teammate Yuki Tsunoda.

Although de Vries had shown signs of improvement in his last few races, it was not enough to convince Red Bull to keep him in the seat.

Speaking with Sky Sports Germany, Mercedes team principal Wolff said that de Vries could have taken Sergio Perez's seat at Red Bull had he been given more time. He said:

"Who knows what would have happened if he had been given the whole season. Maybe he would have been a good candidate for the Red Bull seat, but that's not our problem."

As per Autosport, Mercedes F1 engineering director Andrew Shovlin claimed that the German team would welcome de Vries as their simulator driver. He said:

“I think Nyck will be looking for more than just to become a simulator driver so he’ll want to be doing racing. I’ve only spoken to him by text, and he said he’ll let me know how his plans are coming on. He was certainly very useful for us in that role and would be welcome to get him back in that role. But I suspect his focus will be on finding race seats."

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Sergio Perez analyzes his P3 finish at the 2023 Hungarian GP

Sergio Perez got another podium to his name and rescued his Hungarian GP weekend pretty well after crashing in FP1 and starting the race in P9.

As per F1.com, he said:

"Today was a good one and it was great to get to the podium. We raced initially on the hard compound, which was quite tricky, especially on lap one, but it ended up going well for a long time and we got some good pace before going on the mediums."

He added:

"It was a good result and now I just need to find consistency. When the pressure is on you and you are able to deliver, it makes you feel proud of what you are doing so we just need to keep going forward and keep pushing. I am focusing on myself and making sure I deliver to the maximum. It is great to be given driver of the day but sadly that doesn’t get you any points!"

It will be fascinating to see if Sergio Perez proves his doubters wrong in the upcoming races and rubbished reports of his seat being in danger for 2024.