FORMULA 1 ARAMCO BRITISH GRAND PRIX 2023
I really don’t think Yuki would be an improvement. He’s been inconsistent and his highs haven’t exactly been amazing. They’d be better going for Riccardo or the Hulk or Sainz imo.
No way RB puts another outside driver in the seat. Marko even said that Mateschitz threatened to pull funding for RB Junior if Perez gets the seat because all RB drivers are supposed to come in from RBJ (he gave in, obviously).
Sainz - He worked like hell to get out of RB. Even if it was an option, I can’t see him going back to be a second driver behind Max. We already see how much he hates being deprioritized behind Leclerc.
Hulk - He’s a Mercedes Jr, never had backing from Red Bull. I can’t see this happening.
Ricciardo - Maybe for a short stint to cover Perez if he gets dropped. I can’t see him staying long term.
Hulk isn’t affiliated with Merc at all, are you thinking of someone else?
Also I don’t remember Sainz fighting like hell to get out of RB, I thought Renault just needed a driver and RB let him go because it didn’t look like an RBR seat would open up any time soon and they wanted a space for Gasly.
My bet is on Hulkenberg.
As odd as it sounds, Sainz is too good. RBR doesn’t need another driver who can challenge for the win. That only creates friction. That means that Sainz is not a good option in my opinion.
Ricciardo is apparently too slow when driving the sim, much slower than Perez.
I think Hulk is decent enough, but also realistic enough not to start drama within the team.
Where was it said that Ricardo is slow on sim? Just never came across such info? (not doubting ur comment just want to see where to look for such info)
My hot take is that Yuki is pretty much set to take the second RB seat pending Perez’s overall performance. If Perez continues to be abysmal, I’m sure that RB will drop him using a performance clause in his contract.
Everyone likes to rag on Yuki but since Gasly has left, Yuki stepped out tremendously. Not to mention that he’s been dragging that shit box to mid-field a handful of times. Helmut Marko even commented on Yuki’s performance and Marko never compliments anyone unless you’re Max and Vettel.
De Vries is going to get dropped to make way for Liam Lawson.
RB/AT seats is going to make silly season fun.