Horner working on "issues" with Red Bull driver supply

Red Bull principal Christian Horner has acknowledged that the team has "issues" with its current driver line-up, and says that it is already working on developing a "tremendous pool of talent" for the future.

There had been speculation in Belgium that the team was considering replacing Sergio Perez as Max Verstappen's team mate over the summer break, with Daniel Ricciardo among the candidates to take over.

But Ricciardo has not had a great first half of the 2024 season, while his current team mate at RB Yuki Tsunoda is also reportedly not currently seen as a viable candidate for promotion to the marque's senior squad.

There has been suggestions that Liam Lawson might be in contention for any opening, after he sat in for Ricciardo for five races last year when the Australian suffered a broken metacarpal in his left hand in a practice accident.

But in the end none of the alternatives were seen as better than simply maintaining the status quo. That's a far cry from the past when Red Bull and its junior squad when driver merry-go-rounds were common place.

• Read also: Horner held one-on-one kitchen talk with Perez to address woes

Helmet Marko's driver development programme had proved so successful that a long waiting list of drivers had built up. Among those to come through that path were Ricciardo, Verstappen, Lawson, Sebastian Vettel, Alex Albon, Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz.

In recent years that stream of talent appears to have somewhat dried up, although 19-year-old Isack Hadjar is currently a runaway leader in the Formula 2 support series with Campos Racing.

One step behind Hadjar, Prema Racing driver Arvid Lindblad has enjoyed a strong debut season in Formula 3, and is in the championship fight as a rookie and scored a sprint and feature double victory at Silverstone last month.

Horner insisted that while Red Bull might have headaches with their current F1 driver line-up, the future remained bright.

"We've got issues," he admitted in Spa last weekend. "But you've got to have solutions for tomorrow as well, and I think we've got a tremendous pool of talent."

"We've got experience, we've got youth," Horer said. "We've got Liam in the wings, we've got Hadjar doing a super job in F2. We've got Arvid Lindblad, who I think is a really exciting talent in F3. "We've got some great talent."

While Horner has confirmed that Perez will remain at Red Bull for the rest of the season, he'll need to improve his current situation of being seventh in the drivers standings and 146 points behind Verstappen to stay there in 2025.

If he were to be dropped over the winter, it may open one or more spots for new faces at RB with Lawson and Hadjar a definite option to get things moving again after a period of driver stasis.

And Lindblad is believed to be behind Red Bull's successful request to the FIA for an easing of superlicence rules to lower the minimum age for F1 drivers, with Mercedes' interest in Andrea Kimi Antonelli another factor.

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