F1 – Verstappen: Historic transfer to Red Bull?

The question of the driver who will accompany Max Verstappen next season continues to be talked about. It must be said that Sergio Pérez's performances are not likely to reassure Red Bull, which is working behind the scenes to replace him. The rumor leading to Franco Colapinto is also starting to grow. And if the Austrian team were to ever draw outside its breeding ground to compete with its four-time world champion, it would be historic.

While Max Verstappen led the race to win his fourth world title, Sergio Perez had to fight hard to bring back a point from Las Vegas. A situation that perfectly sums up the season Red Bull who will celebrate a new driver's title, but who has almost already said goodbye to the coronation among the manufacturers. Worse still, the reigning double world champion team is only third and seems poorly prepared to get McLaren et Ferrari. It takes one Sergio Perez unable to bring big points back to his team. Only eighth in the driver standings with 152 points, the Mexican scored 251 points less than his teammate. That's the equivalent of 10 wins difference. A humiliating abyss for Czech Perezdominated by drivers behind the wheel of less efficient single-seaters over time. And which could have consequences for the future.

Colapinto, historic rookie for Red Bull?

Although he extended his contract during the season and is officially linked to Red Bull for next year, the departure of Sergio Perez is quite possible. And to replace it, a name comes back with more and more insistence: Franco Colapino. THE TEAM reminds that Christian Horner was seen again at Williams last week in order to negotiate the arrival of the Argentinian who has impressed since he replaced Logan Sargeant at Monza in the middle of the season. And it would be a small revolution.

Indeed, since its beginnings in F1, Red Bull distinguished itself by drawing from its own pool of pilots: The Red Bull Academy. A strategy which has almost never changed and which has borne fruit since the Austrian team trained and launched two quadruple world champions: Sebastian Vettel et Max Verstappen. A few exceptions should be noted. Since 2005, 12 drivers have found themselves behind the wheel of a Red Bull and only three did not come from its academy. First there is David Coultharda special case since the veteran came to bring his experience to launch the project. He will be joined by Mark Webberwho does not come from the academy Red Bullbut who knows the team perfectly having driven for Jaguarthe team bought by Red Bull in 2005. The real exception therefore concerns Sergio Perez which arrives in 2021. That year, the team led by Christian Horner assumes a change of strategy after failures with Pierre Gasly et Alexander Albon who failed to assume the succession of Daniel Ricciardo alongside Max Verstappen. But now, Red Bull seeks to replace the Mexican.

Red Bull no longer hides its ambitions

And despite serious options with drivers from its academy (Yuki Tsunoda, Isack Hadjar and Liam Lawson), Red Bull could therefore draw outside its pool with Franco Colapinto. And if it is extremely rare that Helmut Marko and Christian Horner do not think of a driver from the academy Redl Bullhowever, it would be unprecedented for them to launch a young driver outside their pool. Until then, the cases cited above (Coulthard, Webber and especially Pérez) only concerned experienced pilots. But this time, Colapinto is only 21 years old and will have only nine races under his belt at the end of the season. It would therefore be a revolution if Red Bull decided to launch a young pilot who did not come from its academy, to the detriment of promising pilots stamped Red Bull. The response should not take long since Helmut Marko recently announced that “ we will have a meeting after the last GP. And it is with these figures that we will present to shareholders that a decision will be made. If Checo was only at the level of Mercedes, we could fight for the title. »