F1 star admits ‘giving up’ over Red Bull driver lineup

A star of the Formula 1 paddock has admitted he has 'given up' with Red Bull over their looming driver lineup decision.

Christian Horner's outfit have experienced a whirlwind year in the sport, constantly facing questions over their driver pairing, despite securing yet another drivers' title thanks to star racer Max Verstappen.

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The Dutchman claimed his fourth consecutive championship with Red Bull thanks to a P5 finish ahead of rival Lando Norris at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

The team finally took home double points after Verstappen's underperforming team-mate Sergio Perez finished P10- so yes, just a singular point contributed for now.

With Red Bull still down in third in the constructors' standings, team principal Horner delivered a desperate plea to Perez to pick up the pace in the remaining race weekends and with just two to go following Vegas, the Mexican racer will be hoping to maximise the grands prix in Qatar and Abu Dhabi, as well as the sprint race next time out.

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Former F1 driver admits losing hope for Perez

Although Perez may have scraped into the points at the iconic street circuit, his last 17 outings in the RB20 have failed to land him in the top five where he would ideally need to be to start making a contribution to the team's championship once again.

With Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko having openly admitted the two junior RB drivers- Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are auditioning for Perez's seat, the pressure is on for the 34-year-old to start delivering or face an early contract termination.

Discussing Red Bull's web of driver lineup options, former racer and Sky F1 pundit Karun Chandhok admitted: "I’ve given up trying to work it out, I honestly have."

"It’s really difficult to work out what they’re going to do between Perez, Lawson, Tsunoda, Coplapinto seems to be on the radar, Isack Hadjar I saw some lines in the press, he’s going to be testing in Abu Dhabi as well, is he an outside contender for the RB seat if Lawson goes into Red Bull?"

"I mean apart from Max being there and probably Yuki being in RB we think… well he gets his Red Bull test doesn’t he… I don’t know I’m just going to wait for the announcement."

When mentioned on the broadcast that Perez is contracted with Red Bull for 2025, Chandhok responded: "I’m sure he’s got a contract but ultimately for the team they’ve got to look at what is the best opportunity to score enough points to win the constructors' world championship.

"If they’re going to finish third, that’s a heap of money that they’ve cost themselves there and despite all drivers, you know you have contracts, there will be performance clauses in there and those are the bits that we don’t hear about."

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