After weeks of speculation, and every indication that Red Bull had lost patience with Sergio Perez, its decision to stick with him after Formula 1’s summer break surprised many.
After all, it was only a couple of weeks ago that Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said that Perez’s run of non-scoring form was ‘unsustainable’ for its constructors’ championship hopes.
Then last weekend, just as Perez appeared to have done his cause no harm at all with a front row start in Belgium, he was lambasted by Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko after his form ‘collapsed’ in the race as he drifted backwards.
Amid the ever-increasing threat from McLaren in the constructors’ championship, and no sign of the podium-finishing form that Red Bull so needs, Marko’s comments appeared to signal that the end of the road was nigh.
But, as Horner and Marko met to discuss things at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes factory on Monday, their conclusion went in the opposite direction.
Rather than feel that Perez had hit the point of no return, their decision was actually to stick with the Mexican for the immediate future.
All talk of a driver shuffle was off the cards – and Red Bull and RB’s driver line-ups were going to remain unchanged for now.
While there has been no official comment from the team about the situation, Motorsport.com understands that multiple factors culminated in them deciding that, for now at least, a driver swap was not the right thing to do.
No obvious alternative
Daniel Ricciardo, Scuderia AlphaTauri, Yuki Tsunoda, Scuderia AlphaTauri
Photo by: Jake Grant / Motorsport Images
Chief among them was the fact that, while Perez’s current form is not ideal – he has scored just 28 points since the start of the European season at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix – there is no obvious candidate smashing the door down as a no-brainer replacement.
It is one thing a team accepting there is a problem with its current driver; it is quite another coming up with a better solution that is guaranteed to be better.
Had Red Bull’s second RB squad had someone of the calibre of previous promising youngsters like Sebastian Vettel or Max Verstappen, clearly with the potential to bring home wins in the right car, then the Perez outcome would almost certainly have been different.
However, Red Bull’s senior management is understood to not be totally convinced RB’s Yuki Tsunoda has the right mental approach that it thinks is essential to be…
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