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There is an obvious way for Red Bull to escape its driver crisis, one it has shown no signs of even contemplating.
In need of a pragmatic solution to a short-term problem, this option could slot in for 2025 and give the team everything it needs in terms of a low-friction, quick and effective team-mate to Max Verstappen. And his name is Valtteri Bottas.
Set aside your knee-jerk reactions about him being 'washed' or having proved himself not to be good enough in his five years alongside Lewis Hamilton at Mercedes, that’s not what matters.
Red Bull needs a wingman for Verstappen and Bottas fulfils the criteria of being experienced, proven, and capable of contributing key points to constructors’ championship victories and being able to win races on days when Verstappen doesn't.
Bottas outqualified Hamilton around one-third of the time when they were sharing the garage, while Perez has only managed that eight times in 80 attempts against Verstappen – only a few of those on merit.
Bottas is also available for 2025 - or at least, he is until the point where Audi, if it is sensible, signs him up again.
The 34-year-old is performing well this season in painful circumstances. That Sauber has failed to score so far this year isn’t down to the drivers, with Bottas’s runs at points early in the season stymied by pitstop disasters and Zhou Guanyu in the other car beset with all sorts of problems.
But Bottas has a tendency to stick the Sauber into Q2 and run well in the race. He did that at Spa, as while 14th on the grid and 15th in the race hardly sounds promising, he was running 10th when the team decided to bring him in for a second stop.
The expectation is he would have lost places to the charging Albon and Ricciardo, who had stopped, anyway but who knows, perhaps he could have hung on? In a car where getting into the middle of Q2 and then fighting competitive gravity in the race is about as good as it gets, Bottas has done well even though you couldn't blame him if there were occasions when he was frustrated by Sauber's troubles.
You could argue that Bottas's experience hasn't done the team much good, but one of the problems in the team has been letting the drivers carry the can for wider weaknesses that haven't been tackled as well as they should have been.
Bottas understands what life in a top team is like and he knows what it’s like to be a very good driver up against an all-time great. That period of his career is behind him, but with his future uncertain why not have one last dance up front?
Even if it’s only a one-year deal for 2025, with options beyond that, while Red Bull works out a more long-term solution the appeal of racing at the front again – something Bottas misses – might appeal.
And it would allow him to show he's still got it and earn a deal elsewhere if not needed for 2026. His task would be to make the most of a car that isn't perfectly tailored to his demands, which is what he did at Mercedes, so in terms of the technical side of his game it's not so much about driving Red Bull on as making the most of it and helping it win the constructors' championship, and Verstappen the drivers'.
This argument is a flight of fancy and Red Bull would probably be unwilling to go outside of its own well-stocked driver roster. After all, what would it say about the long-term mismanagement of that if it once again had to look elsewhere?
But this is a team that has thrived in F1 by being laser-focused on performance, results and delivery. Bottas is the driver of those who are available and who is the most obvious fit for the boxes Red Bull needs to tick. His irreverent off-track style, which has gained him legions of new fans, would also mesh superbly with Red Bull’s own style.
Whether Bottas would consider such a move given he’s keen for a longer-term deal is unclear, but the appeal would surely be overwhelming to jump into a frontrunning car. And most importantly, he’d do the job required.
The one risk is there would be something at the back of his mind nagging at him to take on Verstappen, but that’s the case with any driver and one that is close enough to deliver what’s needed in what’s becoming a very tight fight always comes with that risk. But he's not going to be a Verstappen-beater.
Bottas would not be the future of Red Bull and he's no rising star, but he is still quick and an established professional driver who has shown what he can do at the front in F1. And Red Bull desperately needs someone it can bank on right now without the risk of them further upsetting an applecart that has taken some big hits in recent months. There aren't many drivers in the centre of that Venn diagram and Bottas is the only one available.
That’s why Red Bull should think the unthinkable and bank on Bottas, even though it won't.
