Red Bull told to replace Sergio Perez with Pierre Gasly as Max Verstappen's team-mate

Dutch racing driver Tom Coronel has suggested that Pierre Gasly should be driving for Red Bull this season in Formula 1 rather than Sergio Perez, alongside Max Verstappen.

The 2022 campaign is getting ever-closer with testing underway tomorrow in Barcelona until the end of the week and then another test in Bahrain in March ahead of the first Grand Prix at the same venue on March 20th.

Red Bull, of course, will be looking to be at the sharp end with Verstappen aiming to defend his Drivers’ crown and Perez looking to get more in the championship fight than he did last season in what was his first year with the team.

For Coronel, though, the Mexican shouldn’t be in the RB18 for the 2022 campaign and should instead be replaced by Pierre Gasly, who has excelled for AlphaTauri in recent years following on from his exit from Red Bull.

“I think Pierre Gasly deserved [the seat,] Coronel told Racing News 365.

“Firstly because he comes from the Red Bull pool and secondly because he has shown that he has matured, his head has become stronger. His self-confidence is back. I would just put him next to it.

“I expected a lot more from Perez last year, really a lot more. When did he really help? Once at the end of the season year and once somewhere in the middle of the season. Other than that, he’s never been around at all.”

Certainly, you feel Gasly has earned a shot at another front-running team and if AlphaTauri is not that this season then he may want to move on at the end of the campaign.

Perez will be itching to show he belongs in a Red Bull, though, and he did put in some good performances over the course of 2021 in fairness to him – he’ll just want to add an extra level of consistency to get nearer to Max.