Villeneuve: Sainz best to replace Perez, not Tsunoda nor Lawson
F1 NewsWednesday, 24 July 2024 at 11:36
Jacques Villeneuve weighed in on the Formula 1 Silly Season, sharing his thoughts on Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Carlos Sainz, Liam Lawson, Oliver Bearman and others as crunch time looms for several drivers seeking a place on the 2025 grid.
Several F1 seats are yet to be filled and still available at Mercedes, Williams, Alpine, Sauber aka Audi, VCARB, Haas and maybe even Red Bull. The summer break is sure to be a busy one behind the scenes, as deals need to be made or broken, as in the case of Perez.
History shows that being Max Verstappan's teammate at Red Bull is a 'poisoned chalice' for all the drivers he has paired up with, speaking to the media team at Instant Casino, Villeneuve reckoned: "In the Red Bull family now, there's no suitable replacement for Sergio Perez.
"Yuki Tsunoda is still a volatile driver, he's a bit more controlled than he was in the past but he's still inconsistent. Liam Lawson doesn't have the experience to replace him, we don't know if he can make that step.
"My best bet to replace Perez at Red Bull is Carlos Sainz. He's a great teammate who performs for any team he drives for. Red Bull need to rebuild right now, Sainz would be a great first step in that rebuild," predicted the 53-year-old Canadian.
Unlike Villeneuve, many believe Lawson is up to the job despite his inexperience. He did compete in five GPs last year, the first at short notice, to replace injured Daniel Ricciardo. The rookie beat Tsunoda four out of five times. And if they don't get him into F1 next year, Lawson becomes a free agent.
Villeneuve: No surprise Ollie Bearman has secured the Haas seat
While Villeneuve is wary of putting a young driver straight into the front line of F1, where Red Bull constantly battles, he believes Oliver Bearman's confirmation at Haas for 2025 is the way to go for the Ferrari-backed driver.
Villeneuve said: "It's not a surprise that Ollie Bearman has secured the junior Ferrari team seat with the amount of Friday mornings he was driving in.
"Bearman had a good race in Jeddah, he survived and scored some points for the team," recalled the World Champ, before a typical reality check from him: "Everyone reacted like he won the race, but he wasn't even matching the pace of the other Ferrari.
"If he was in another team, he would not have scored any points. You have to take it in perspective that he was in a Ferrari, not a Williams or Haas. Bearman still needs to make that next step - he has done enough to deserve that chance at Haas but now we will see how good of a driver he really is," ventured JV.
Zhou is very, very big in China
One driver who unable to show who he "really is" is Guanyou Zhou who has been nothing to write home about as Valtteri Bottas' teammate. He also has no deal for 2025 as yet. But at the Chinese Grand Prix, a huge untapped market for F1, his popularity astounded the paddock.
Villeneuve included, who gave his take on the future of F1's first Chinese driver: "Guanyou Zhou has a big luggage of cash in his sponsors that he needs to put somewhere, whether that's as an F1 driver or a reserve driver.
"Based on the results, Zhou doesn't deserve a seat in F1, but if a team can get all that sponsorship money that Zhou brings with him, even as a reserve drive, then it's a great result for them," concluded Villeneuve.
After he Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, F1 goes into supposed hibernation. But be sure mobile phones will be buzzing as teams finalise their line-ups, not only for next year but the second half of the season too if paddock whispers are to be believed.
Much hinges on what Sainz will do as he is top of everyone's list barring Red Bull and Mercedes it seems, which leaves the Spaniard playing 'eeny-meeny-miney-moe' with Williams, Stake F1 Team aka Audi, Haas and Alpine.
Big Question: Who is the best second-driver option for Red Bull?
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