Red Bull is once again facing questions about their second driver choice for remained of this season and next year, as Sergio Perez’s struggles have allowed McLaren to jump the reigning champions in points and are the favourite to win the championship at this point.

Perez’s difficulties led Red Bull to consider his position during the summer break, but he was allowed to stay, as his contract runs until 2026.

Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo, who was rumoured to swap with Perez in Red Bull, has been struggling for the last few races to even prove that he is worth of the VCARB seat, sparking rumors that he might get replaced by Liam Lawson after the Singapore Grand Prix.

Red Bull is now under pressure, as they have to make a decision about Liam Lawson by the end of September when his contract ends.

When asked by Sky Sports F1, if there was a contractual obligation to give Liam Lawson a seat in 2024, Red Bull’s Team Principal Cristian Horner avoided the response.

“I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of driver contracts,” Horner said.

“There’s privacy between the company and individuals. Liam, the job he did for us last year in the VCARB car was very impressive.

“Now, we took experience over that because Daniel was our banker if Sergio [Perez] was to drop the ball. Daniel has had a reasonable season but it hasn’t been a stellar year.

“The question is how good is Liam and sometimes difficult decisions have to be made in order to get those answers. 

“We’ll sit down with all of those options available to us during this next three-week gap.” 

Horner then hinted that Red Bull might be interested in signing George Russell, as his Mercedes contract ends at the end of the 2025 season.

“We’re not afraid to go out of the pool,” he said.

“George Russell is out of contract at the end of next year.

“It would be foolish to not take that into consideration. There are other talented drivers that could well be out of contract as well.”

The Team Principal of Mercedes, Toto Wolff, who has publicly shown his interest in signing Max Verstappen, quickly responded and practically binned Horner’s ambitions. 

“Christian is always trying to stir the sh*t up,” said Wolff quoted by Motorsport Week.

“George is a Mercedes driver, has been forever, and hopefully will be forever. We have a long contract with him.”