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.
I thought he was a Mercedes Jr. during his F3 career… but maybe I’m remembering wrong.
Sainz got snubbed for the Red Bull seat even though he felt he out performed Max. Red Bull loaned him to Renault and once he was there, Sainz tried to make the move permanent. I just remembered that at the time, RB did not want to let Sainz off the RB team.
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)
https://the-race.com/formula-1/inside-red-bulls-bid-to-coax-out-the-daniel-ricciardo-we-knew/
Amongst others.
Obviously no real “hard” data, but the rumours were certainly strong.
