Sergio Perez silenced his critics with a strong start to the 2023 season – but a slip in form has seen speculation over his future return.
He began the season with two wins from the first four races. Ever after Max Verstappen won the fifth, in Miami, Perez was only 14 points behind his team-mate and well in the fight.
But his last two race weekends have been disastrous for his title ambitions. A crash in Monaco qualifying meant he started that race last and could not overtake on the tight street circuit, meaning he left with zero points.
Another poor Saturday followed in Spain. He worked his way up to fourth from 11th on the grid, but Verstappen won the race again and now the gap between them is already at 53 points.
Some think Red Bull will be looking at alternatives if Perez continues to fade. Johnny Herbert is one of those who believes the Mexican's seat is "under threat", though did go on to add that he is "a very good number two" to Verstappen.
Mirror Sport has taken a look at the three of the most likely candidates for Red Bull to choose from if they do decide to replace Perez:
Lando Norris
Surely, this would be their preferred result? The Brit is one of the brightest young talents on the grid, but has yet to have the chance to show off his full potential at McLaren with the team's progress now stalling after encouraging improvements up until 2022.
Norris had talks with Red Bull before signing his most recent contract with McLaren at the start of last year. That deal ties him down until the end of 2025 but, as we know, money talks and Red Bull would not bat an eyelid at paying a sizeable fee to release him from that contract if they decided he was the man for them.
To be honest, whether or not this move happens would probably come down to the driver's wishes. There is no doubting he would have more chances of race wins and a title push with Red Bull compared to McLaren, but being Verstappen's team-mate is arguably the toughest job on the grid.
Norris is an ambitious and confident young man and will fancy his chances of being able to give Verstappen a real fight in equal machinery. But he will also be aware that, if he is wrong about being able to match the Dutchman, then moving to Red Bull would be committing himself to being the unofficial number two at the team.
Yuki Tsunoda
Six months ago, few would have been brave enough to predict that Tsunoda would be in the conversation for a Red Bull seat. But an impressively consistent start to the 2023 season in an AlphaTauri car which has looked lacking for pace has changed that situation.
The feeling prior to the start of the campaign was that this is a make-or-break year for his Formula 1 career. The Japanese racer needed to show more of the talent which saw him fast-tracked through the Red Bull junior programme into an F1 seat and less of the attitude which gave him the reputation of a hot-head.
Signs of that spikiness remain when behind the wheel of his car, but the difference is he is making up for it with his driving. He has been in the fight for points at every race so far this season and, while he has only managed to convert twice so far, the general consensus is that Tsunoda is now progressing as expected.
Team chief Franz Tost recently said the 23-year-old "should drive at AlphaTauri again in 2024" before adding he will be "ready for Red Bull" the following year. Whether or not Helmut Marko, in charge of the development programme, feels the same remains to be seen.
Daniel Ricciardo
No doubt, this would be the easiest to pull off and a popular move with many F1 fans. Ricciardo's affable personality has seen him amass a huge following and Red Bull took full advantage of that after it was announced last year that his time with McLaren was to be cut short.
Without a race seat for 2023, he returned to Red Bull to be their reserve driver and also to fulfil plenty of marketing responsibilities. As the official backup to Verstappen and Perez, it would be a seamless transition to promote the Australian to a race seat if the team were to make a change.
But that feels very unlikely to happen. Whether of not Red Bull would admit it publicly, a team with such ambition is unlikely to give one of its two race seats to a driver who struggled to make an impact at McLaren and who turns 34 at the start of July.
Red Bull will be planning more for the longer term. It would not make sense for the team to axe Perez only to replace him with a driver of a similar age when there is no evidence to suggest he would be any more likely to provide a strong title challenge to Verstappen.
