Opinion: there’s no point dropping Sergio Perez

Early yesterday evening, F1 Twitter (nope, X is a silly name and I refuse) lit up with a flurry of reports suggesting that Red Bull had decided to retain Sergio Perez despite endless rumours lately that he’d be dropped if his performances didn’t improve.

Last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix - the final race before the sport’s summer break - could hardly have gone worse for him. Starting on the front row of the grid, he was immediately passed by the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and like clockwork the rest of the top cars all followed suit.

He eventually finished eighth, and only inherited seventh after George Russell’s shock disqualification. That he grabbed the bonus point for setting the fastest lap was entirely because he stopped to bolt on fresh softs near the end.

Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko reportedly said the Mexican driver had “completely collapsed” at Spa, and with the team now only 42 points ahead of McLaren in the fight for the constructors’ title, it looked like the writing was on the wall.

Not so, apparently. There’s been no public statement from the team (and to be fair, how exactly do you back a driver who already signed a new contract two months ago?) but several outlets have now reported that there’ll be no mid-season switcheroo. Sergio stays.

There are two ways of looking at this. The most obvious is that Red Bull desperately needs to make a change: Perez hasn’t finished higher than P7 since Miami in May, and if his woeful form continues Red Bull is going to lose a world championship just 12 months on from its record-breaking 22-out-of-23-win season.

That would be unprecedented. When McLaren went one grand prix from perfection in 1988, its domination continued in 1989. And 1990. And 1991.

And remember, the constructors’ championship is how the prize money gets divvied up. The difference between first and second runs into the millions of dollars, and the reputational damage (if you can call it that) would be pretty hefty as well.

But realistically… who is going to do a better job than Perez? Red Bull has the RB drivers to call on, but have Yuki Tsunoda or Daniel Ricciardo done enough to show they’d be the consistent front-runners Red Bull needs? Nah.

Reserve driver Liam Lawson is another option: he did a tremendous job when he subbed in for the injured Ricciardo last season, but the team has (poor) form when it comes to promoting young drivers too early. Is the New Zealander really going to be capable of doing what Perez can’t straight away? It’s such a long shot. Even if Oliver Bearman showed what’s possible in Saudi Arabia back in March…

We’re forgetting as well that Checo has the most difficult job in Formula 1: being Max Verstappen’s teammate. The three-time champ has seen off Carlos Sainz, Daniel Ricciardo, Pierre Gasly and Alex Albon, and frequently makes Perez look like he won his F1 drive in a raffle.

Say what you like about the 34-year-old, but he’s a five-time race winner and in the early part of his career he frequently put Saubers and Force Indias on the podium when they had no real right to be there. His first ever grand prix win came after he’d been spun around into P18 . Despite his struggles he is no amateur, and it takes character to take blow after blow and keep getting up from the canvas.

Short of doing something drastic like tempting Sebastian Vettel out of retirement (and even he passed his peak long before he hung up his helmet), Red Bull has no choice but to see it through with Sergio. For better or worse.