With Hamilton's announced move to Ferrari, leaving Carlos Sainz Jr, without a seat for 2025, would Redbull consider their former Toro Rosso driver for a Redbull seat? Given their frustrations with Checo Perez, & Danny Ric's lack of showing, could Sainz be the safe pair hands they are looking for??
I don't think Danny Ric has had a lack of showing. He broke his hand on the weekend they showed up with huge upgrades, and the car performed very well while he was out.
He returned, and had good results for what the car was rated vs the rest of the field.
Danny Ric will now have the dream of a possible seat at red bull or Merc. Horner will throw money at him to secure it so Danny will be happy there.
Merc will have the pool of : sainz, Alonso, bottas, albon to pick from.
My bet is red bull locks in Ric. Bottas goes back to merc. Perez fills his space. Sainz goes to Aston and Alonso finally retires.
I don't think there'll be any immediate decisions, so Danny Ric should have time to show a real revival of form, which wasn't particular evident during his admittedly limited running last season... I can't see him being on Mercs radar, they have a young gun waiting in the wings, so an Alonso move there could make sense, while they assess thier new charge. Alonso is still hungry & competitive, but probably only a couple of years away from the inevitable retirement, he'd also be a good partner pushing Russell.
Sainz might earmark either Merc or Redbull as anything else would be a backwards step...🤷🏻♂️
Reads like a musical chairs prediction. Also you're forgetting Gasly, who had a better season than Ocon in his first year with the team. He's a better shout than Albon who's clearly overrated and Bottas isn't even in contention. Highly doubt Mercedes/Toto goes for Alonso. But ultimately it's all going to hinge on driver performance from this season.