Sergio Perez, Red Bull, and Daniel Ricciardo, VCARB

Red Bull “need” Daniel Ricciardo in their driver pool as word is Sergio Perez could walk away from Formula 1 after F1 2024.

That is the claim of former racing driver turned F1 pundit Allard Kalff, as rumours swirl that Ricciardo has driven his final F1 race at the Singapore Grand Prix, with Ricciardo himself admitting that there is a “realistic chance” that he will not be on the grid at the next race in the United States and Liam Lawson reportedly set to take over.

Could Sergio Perez offer Daniel Ricciardo Red Bull lifeline?

Having rejoined the Red Bull fold in F1 2023, before being placed in junior team VCARB (then AlphaTauri), the ultimate goal for Ricciardo was to secure a return to the senior team having previously left Red Bull after the 2018 season.

But perhaps his hopes of that dream return have not been completely dashed as Kalff says there is a story going around that current Red Bull driver Perez could call time on his F1 career after F1 2024, the Mexican having joined Ricciardo this season in being subject to intense speculation of the axe looming.

And with that in mind, Kalff says Red Bull need to retain Ricciardo as an option for the second seat alongside Max Verstappen.

“There is a story that Sergio Perez would like to stop driving Formula 1 and even stop car racing,” said Kalff on Viaplay’s In de Slipstream.

“It’s hard to say that things are going great for him. Maybe he’s broken.

“You could say we put Lawson or [Yuki] Tsunoda in it, but then you also need Ricciardo. You have to let someone drive or you have to go all the way to the young talents. Something like that could also happen.”

As the F1 2024 season heads into a month-long break before the campaign resumes in Austin, Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said there will be a “bigger picture” assessment of their driver pool during this period, claiming Ricciardo was their “banker” if things went wrong for Perez.

But it has not been a smooth season for Ricciardo either, who despite highlights like his P4 in the Miami sprint race has scored just 12 points to team-mate Tsunoda’s 22.

“Daniel’s had a reasonable season, but it hasn’t been a stellar year,” Horner continued when speaking to Sky F1.

“Now, the question is, how good is Liam? And sometimes difficult decisions have to be made in order to get those answers.

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

Lawson impressed last season in a five-race stint in the place of Ricciardo after he suffered a broken hand in practice at the Dutch Grand Prix.