Daniel Ricciardo still “the number one candidate” to replace Sergio Perez in 2025

Daniel Ricciardo is still the frontrunner to replace Sergio Perez at Red Bull in 2025, according to Ted Kravitz.

Perez’s current Red Bull contract runs out at the end of 2024, leading to intense speculation about his potential replacement.

Despite finishing a career-best second in the 2023 F1 drivers’ championship, Perez languished well behind Verstappen throughout the season.

Ricciardo’s return to the Red Bull fold, replacing Nyck de Vries in the middle of last year has only put more pressure on Perez heading into the new season.

While Ricciardo didn’t outclass Yuki Tsunoda, partially down to the injury he sustained at Zandvoort, a strong start to 2024 might make his dream return to Red Bull a reality.

In a recent Q&A on Sky Sports’ website, Kravitz explained why Ricciardo remains the favourite to replace.

“Firstly, I think he's going to have a very good season,” Kravtiz wrote. “I think he's going be on the podium at least once in that RB. I think he's going to score a lot of points and help move that team forward.

“They've got a lot of big technical signings - Tim Goss, a very experienced technical guy, and a lot of people have joined from other teams, including Red Bull.

“And as for replacing Perez, Daniel is still, I think, the number one candidate to replace Perez, now that they can't get Lando and Lewis has gone elsewhere, it’s really between Ricciardo and Sainz.”

Kravitz sees Ricciardo as the ideal candidate to replace Perez, rather than Carlos Sainz, due to potential friction between the Spaniard and Verstappen back when they were teammates at Toro Rosso.

“I just think Ricciardo would be a little bit better for inter-team morale, purely because it didn’t end particularly well when Sainz and Verstappen were team-mates,” he added. 

“But they’re both older and they’ve both moved on a lot from the Toro Rosso days, so maybe it might work.

“But I still think somewhere deep in Red Bull, the plan is for Danny Ric to replace Checo in 2025.”