Max Verstappen ‘never wanted’ Daniel Ricciardo to leave Red Bull, Sergio Perez says ‘future is in my hands’

Sergio Pérez is not worried about his recent poor form or Daniel Ricciardo’s return to Formula 1; Watch all of the Hungarian GP session live on Sky Sports F1, starting on P1 at 12 noon on Friday; F1 Juniors live on Sky Showcase and Sky Sports Mix on Sunday

Sergio Perez insists his future is in his hands but he is keen to focus on the two F1 races before the summer break, rather than whether he will stay with Red Bull after this season.

Question marks about Pérez’s future have grown after he failed to reach Q3 in the last five events and Daniel Ricciardo’s return to F1 at AlphaTauri has added to the pressure.

Christian Horner says Red Bull plans to retain Max Verstappen and Pérez for next year as per their contracts, but Ricciardo admits AlphaTauri is being looked at as a way to return to Red Bull for 2025. Pérez’s contract expires at the end of 2024 and Verstappen’s in 2028.

“I’ve been in F1 for 13 years so I don’t think beyond that. I don’t even have time to discuss what’s happening with Daniel. It’s a great opportunity for him. I’m focusing on Hungary and Belgium, I’m not focusing on 2025,” said Pérez.

“It’s in my hands. I’m a winner, I don’t like a bad weekend. I’m not here for this, I’d rather be at home doing something else.”

“I’m here because I know I can do it and I’ve done it before. People sitting on the couch forget how good we are at the little things. We’ve seen it with other drivers and teams – they’ve had tough times. But they don’t have 20 replacements after each session.”

Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez have both been helped by Daniel Ricciardo in the Australian Red Bull simulator this year

Pérez had only had one podium in the last five races after being forced into the field after disappointing qualifying. Teammate Verstappen, meanwhile, has won every Grand Prix and leads the Drivers’ Championship by 99 points.

Asked if his one lap speed was a concern, Pérez replied: “It’s not a concern. Qualifying has always been a different situation and we haven’t dealt with it as well as we could have. But there have always been external factors, it’s not pure speed that has gone away.”

“The last few races I’ve had a lack of car, whenever the conditions change. It goes wide. That’s something that has put us out. In the last five races, conditions have changed in qualifying, which has put us on the backfoot.”

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Ted Kravitz says Daniel Ricciardo could challenge Sergio Perez for his Red Bull spot next season if he is able to prevent Alfa Tauri from finishing last in the constructors’ championship.

Tsunoda: I don’t care for the extra attention

Yuki Tsunoda largely outclassed de Vries during their 10 races as team-mates in AlphaTauri, leading 8–2 in qualifying and the race.

Tsunoda revealed that he has spoken to the Dutchman and said that he would “keep doing what he’s doing” against Ricciardo.

“Maybe I don’t recognize how much attention we got. Also, I don’t really care because it doesn’t matter much to me. You have to beat your teammate in F1. I’ll stick to what I was doing in the last race,” Tsunoda explained. Sky Sports F1,

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Yuki Tsunoda not paying much attention to Daniel Ricciardo replacing Nick de Vries as his new AlphaTauri team-mate

“Daniel brings good information to our team with his experience and I can learn a lot of things from him – how he behaves in the team and how he drives.”

He further added, “Once he gets the confidence, he will get faster. Even if he gets faster, I will learn from those things and hopefully I can be faster than him.”

Verstappen: I never wanted Ricciardo to go

Verstappen was Ricciardo’s team-mate between 2014 and 2018 before the Australian left for Renault in 2019 and joined McLaren in 2021.

It was Ricciardo’s decision to leave Red Bull and Verstappen says he wanted him to stay at the time.

“I talked to Daniel a lot last week – I could see he was very excited, even after driving our car,” said the two-time world champion.

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Max Verstappen has welcomed the return of Daniel Ricciardo to the Formula One grid but admitted he is disappointed to see AlphaTauri lose his seat to Nick de Vries.

“It’s great to have Daniel back in the family. I really never wanted him to leave. We know we’re really good. If Daniel does well where he is now, you definitely have an opportunity to go back. So, to be honest, it’s all open.”

For the first time since 2013, there will be two Australians on the grid. At that time it was Mark Webber and Ricciardo, after 10 years it is Oscar Piastri and Ricciardo.

Piastri said, “I’m very happy to have him back. I remember the last time there were two Australians.”

“It’s very, very nice – we’re very far away, and it’s very rare to have both of us at the same time. So it’s great to have both of us on the big stage, from a country with such a small population relative to Europe.”

Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo reunite at the F1 press conference for the first time this year in Budapest.

Sky Sports F1 live Hungarian GP schedule

Friday 21 July
8:55 am: F3 Practice
10 am: F2 practice
12 Noon: Hungarian GP Practice One (Session starts 12:30 PM)
2 pm: F3 Qualifying
2:45 PM: F2 Qualifying
3:40 PM: Hungarian GP Practice Two (Session starts at 4 PM)
5:15 pm: The F1 Show

Saturday 22 July
8:45 am: F3 Sprint
11:15 AM: Hungarian GP Practice Three (Session starts 11:30 AM)
1:10 PM: F2 Sprint
2:15 PM: Hungarian GP Qualifying Build-up (Sky Showcase)
3:00 PM: Hungarian GP Qualifying (Sky Showcase)
5 p.m.: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook

Sunday 23 July
7:20 am: F3 Feature Race
9am: F2 Feature Race
11 am: Porsche Supercup
12:30 PM: Grand Prix Sunday – Hungarian GP Build-up
1:30 PM: F1 Juniors: Hungarian Grand Prix (Sky Sports Mix and Sky Showcase)
2 pm: Hungarian Grand Prix
4pm: Checkered flag: British GP reaction
5 p.m.: Ted’s Notebook

You can stream the Hungarian Grand Prix and more Now at £21 per month,