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Red Bull have announced that Sergio Perez will continue to be a part of the team after the summer break. With that, all the speculation is dead, as the rumour mill had run wild with reports of the Mexican being close to getting replaced.
The reality of the matter is that Perez hasn't done enough this season to prove that he should continue to be on the grid. As F1 goes into the summer break, Red Bull are coming off a race where their second driver started on the front row but finished P8 by the chequered flag fell.
There's no data that could help make a compelling case for keeping Sergio Perez at Red Bull. The problem team principal Christian Horner and director Helmut Marko, though, face is somewhat different, which might be the reason why they opted to keep Perez with the team after the summer break. Let's take a look.
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Highly unlikely that Sergio Perez's replacement would perform any better
One of the biggest problems Red Bull are trying to solve is that they need a driver that help them secure the Constructors championship.
The options are on the table right now are just not the ones that give them a guarantee that they would be better than what Sergio Perez is going to fare at Red Bull in the second half.
The likely contenders for the seat are Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson. Could we expect either of the two to jump into a car that's quite clearly hard to drive and perform better without having any pre-season testing or any running for that matter?
The answer is possibly no. Lawson has had five races in F1, so throwing him into a Red Bull with Max Verstappen in the other cockpit would be unfair to him. Meanwhile, Ricciardo has not shown his quick adaptability to new cars.
We've seen that this season and in general as well. The Australian has found it difficult to adapt to changes. With neither him nor Lawson being a guaranteed upgrade, Red Bull likely opted to persist with Perez.
Red Bull not convinced by any of Sergio Perez's replacements
The next point appears to be the fact that none of Sergio Perez's replacements have convinced Red Bull enough to make the change. In the past, when Sebastian Vettel left, the team was convinced enough by Daniil Kvyat, who did a decent job as well.
The team was convinced enough to give Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon a shot as well, which showed how highly it rated them. That has not been the case with a Yuki Tsunoda, whose anger appears to be something that's holding him back or with Lawson, who's very inexperienced, or with Ricciardo who has just not shown enough.
It appears that as Horner and Marko sat down to discuss Perez's replacement, they just couldn't pick anyone who could be considered a guaranteed upgrade.
Red Bull might look to poach a rival driver
Finally, one could say that this is a wake up call for Red Bull because they miscalculated their management of the driver line-up. During or after the summer break might be the time when they begin conversations with other drivers on the grid.
Maybe an aggressive approach is needed to secure a driver who would be an upgrade on Sergio Perez and want to be a part of the set-up for the long term.
