The racer recruitment row at Red Bull is gaining social media traction now! Even though the Milton-Keynes team is still leading the World Championship, McLaren and Mercedes are both catching up fast. And the reason is glaringly obvious.

Red Bull has only one racer, Max Verstappen, who is consistently scoring huge points to support his team’s F1 title hopes. On the other hand, Max’s teammate Sergio Perez is going through a slump that has caused him to win just 24 points in the last 5 games. At this point, Red Bull cannot afford Perez’s mistakes, and might replace him soon.

In the British GP, Perez’s underperformance led to his elimination from Q1 in the Qualifiers. Reacting to the upsetting results, the Mexican’s boss, Christian Horner, said, “[Perez] knows it’s unsustainable to not be scoring points – we have to be scoring points in that car, and he knows that.”

Since the Red Bull Team Principal himself spoke about Checo’s poor results, rumors started coming in from all directions about the Austrian outfit outing Perez. And if the 34-year-old exits the team, the next best replacement for Red Bull is Daniel Ricciardo.

The Australian 8-time Grand Prix winner has been Max Verstappen’s teammate before. The two of them were wildly successful until Riccardo walked out of Red Bull in 2018. Currently, the Honey Badger races for RBR’s sister team, VCARB.

In all probability, Sergio Perez‘s contract might get prematurely terminated as Red Bull might take up Ricciardo in his place. So, the tension is running high in the Milton Keynes headquarters, and F1 skit artist Conor Moore just made an Instagram reel depicting that.

In the short clip, Conor could be seen playing three roles–of Ricciardo, Perez, and Horner. Christian Horner seemed visibly under pressure as the characters playing Ricciardo and Perez started at him with imploring eyes for the Red Bull seat. Interestingly, the video has gotten the stamp of approval from real-life Horner himself, as he has “liked” the post on Instagram. And of course, the fans did not miss this tiny detail when the reel popped up on their feed.

However, Sergio Perez may have saved him from a Red Bull exit by playing a masterstroke recently. So, what did he do?

Sergio Perez has taken help from a Mexican billionaire to secure F1 future

The Belgian GP was Sergio Perez’s chance to redeem himself in the eyes of his superiors at Red Bull. He had been on the right track by grabbing the second Qualifying position ahead of the main race. However, just when the lights went out, Perez lost his place to Lewis Hamilton. And subsequently, he lost many more places to end up 7th overall. This heartbreak almost made it certain that Perez would lose the place he currently holds at Red Bull.

However, Perez has thrown a Hail Mary and taken the help of Carlos Slim, the Mexican billionaire. With a net worth of $84 billion, Slim has rescued Checo from suffering a Red Bull exit using his influence, as per the reports. Now, it is almost certain that the ex-Racing Point man will continue with Christian Horner’s army until at least the Mexican GP. However, this does not eliminate the chance of RBR replacing Perez in 2025.

Thus, the world is now looking at what Red Bull does with Sergio Perez and Christian Horner is feeling the tension. Do you think the Austrian team will be as harsh to Checo as they were with Pierre Gasly when they demoted him mid-season?