LAWSON IS BOOKIES’ FAVOURITE TO REPLACE PEREZ AT RED BULL

Sergio Perez redeemed himself at the 2024 Hungarian Grand Prix finishing P7 from P16, after crashing out in Qualifying a day earlier at Hungaroring but his future remains in the balance with Liam Lawson bookies favourite to replace the Mexican at Red Bull.“It hurts to let your whole team down,” lamented Perez afterwards. He might’ve added “yet again” such is the regularity of his misdemeanours. The Mexican veteran is no match for his Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen who is also not content with the RB20 in its current form.Even before the weekend in Hungary, there was speculation, triggered by Nasir Hameed’s one-on-one sit-down interview with Helmut Marko in Graz who suggested over the summer a decision has been made.He also revealed in the same chat that there are “escape clauses in every F1 contract” which means Perez should up his game before his team “escape” him.My sports fan son (like I, apart from F1 he enjoys football aka soccer and NBA) swears by the bookies when there are doubts about a player’s form and even his potential moves to other clubs. Invariably, if the odds are high that a player is departing his team, the betting begins.The one-two in Hungary on Sunday by McLaren duo Oscar Piastrin and Lando Norris was a 27-point blow to Red Bull’s points, while Max did himself no favours by turning a podium shot into P5 as his anger management skills went AWOL. Verstappen still leads by 76 points, Norris is P2 now and eight points closer now.In other words, Red Bull needs a number two, who can not only back up his teammate’s scoring but also be in the mix to help when Verstappen needs it. Right now, and for some time, it’s been Verstappen versus McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes.Flying solo as stats show Verstappen on 265 points leads the 2024 F1 World Championship, while Perez is Pz on 124 points after 13 Rounds of the 24 race weekend season.