As the Formula One circus heads toward the last race before the summer break, in August, at least two drivers will be hoping to have a future following the series’ return from its holiday. Both Sergio Perez, at Red Bull, and Daniel Ricciardo, at Visa Cash App RB, will likely be biting their nails as a decision on their seats seems imminent.
In the Hungarian Grand Prix on Sunday, Perez worked hard to erase the memory of an accident in qualifying that saw him start 16th, as he climbed to seventh by the end. On the other hand, Ricciardo dropped three spots from his qualifying position and ended the day out of the points, in 12th.
McLaren’s Oscar Piastri won the race after a last call by the team to get teammate Lando Norris to move over and let the Australian take the victory.
“It’s very special,” said Piastri. “Obviously, a little complicated at the end but I put myself in the right position at the start. To have a win 18 months in is an incredible feeling.”
Piastri led the race until the final pit stop, where McLaren brought Norris in early and allowed him to undercut Piastri. The team undid that with the order for leader Norris to let Piastri through, although he balked at the order and raised some doubt as to whether he’d comply. In the end, Norris slowed and let Piastri through with a couple of laps to go.
“The team asked me to do it so I did it,” Norris said after the race. “Yeah, that’s it.”
While McLaren seems to be flying high of late, whether Perez and Ricciardo can keep their spots remains to be seen as the series heads into the Belgian Grand Prix, the last race before summer break.
While the decision still hasn’t been made, Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko said that “we stick to our approach. We wait for the next race and then we sit down together to prepare and see what we are going to do.”
Marko also insisted that Red Bull reserve driver Liam Lawson is “definitely a candidate if it could come to needing a candidate.”
Fans might know the answer by the end of the Belgian Grand Prix weekend. While many critics wrongly seem to think neither driver still possesses the right stuff to stay in F1, the reality is that neither became a bad F1 driver overnight. There must be more to it than that.
Many factors go into making a driver successful and many conspire to make them unsuccessful. Talk to anyone who’s raced at a high level and they’ll tell you that confidence makes or breaks a driver. Have it and you’re unstoppable; lose it and you’re fragile.
For Perez and Ricciardo, the new car seems to have been the confidence breaker. In Perez’s case, he gets the added bonus of going up against one of the best drivers on the grid, who’s also well-suited to the car, so he looks even worse. Having your teammate excel when you struggle doesn’t boost your confidence.
The same goes for Ricciardo, who could not get the McLaren to brake the way he wanted in his first year with the team, in 2021, and then failed to adapt to the new car altogether. Meanwhile, Lando Norris got on better with the old and new car, which made Ricciardo’s life all about how he compared poorly to his teammate.
Two years on, Ricciardo’s struggles to adapt to the new cars seem to be easing, while Perez’s performance continues to disappoint. That may end up being the factor that results in Lawson getting a seat.
It’s important to note that the only recent F1 driver who could jump into any car and make it go as fast as it could — no matter what — was Kimi Räikkönen. The only other who could do this in recent memory was Juan Pablo Montoya.
Remember that even seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton often struggled to get the most out of the Mercedes in recent years, compared to his teammate George Russell. Similarly, four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel could not get on top of the new hybrid car in 2014 and never regained his championship form.
