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Sergio Perez will remain in his Red Bull seat following Formula 1's summer break, after deliberations among the company's F1 chiefs over whether to replace him mid-season.
Team principal Christian Horner and Red Bull motorsport advisor Helmut Marko met to discuss Perez's form among other things on Monday, and The Race now understands the team has been informed internally that Perez will remain in the seat.
“Checo remains a Red Bull Racing driver despite recent speculation and we look forward to seeing him perform at tracks he has previously excelled at after the summer break," Horner told personnel at the factory today.
WHY RED BULL DOUBTS GREW
Perez is in comfortably his worst run of form during his time at Red Bull, as a solid 103 points in the first six races have been followed by a catastrophic 28 in the last eight.
He had secured a contract extension for 2025 this year, albeit apparently with termination clauses that Red Bull could activate to get him out of the seat immediately - and this potential became a hot topic as Perez's form tailspin continued.
While Perez's form dip has also correlated with Red Bull being reeled in by its rivals, Max Verstappen's drivers' championship lead remains intact and even bolstered - but Red Bull's constructors' title chase, once looking like a nailed-on success, is now in serious jeopardy.
McLaren has reduced its lead to 42 points, and has been outscoring Red Bull at over nine points per race on average since Miami in early May - meaning that on current pace Red Bull will lose the championship battle.
GLIMPSES OF HOPE
Perez has offered glimpses of improved form of late with a thoroughly decent recovery drive to seventh in Hungary - albeit one necessitated by a brutal Q1 error - and a front-row start in mixed qualifying conditions in Belgium.
But, even though he's seemingly been imbued with more confidence in the RB20 by the update introduced in Hungary (with Perez receiving part of the full package), he has not put a complete weekend together to Red Bull's satisfaction.
After his slump to eighth on the road (seventh after George Russell's disqualification) at Spa, team boss Christian Horner struggled to conceal his disappointment at the result. But he also stressed that "nobody wants to make that decision" of replacing Perez and that the team is "behind him" to help recover form.
Perez himself, meanwhile, was defiant in the face of ongoing questions about his immediate future, saying he would no longer address them as he had already repeatedly stressed he had total confidence he would keep the seat. That confidence has proven well-placed.
THE REJECTED ALTERNATIVES
Monday's decision comes on the heels of weeks of Red Bull evaluating - privately and publicly - potential replacements, with reserve driver Liam Lawson given a filming day runout and RB driver Daniel Ricciardo also evaluated in terms of his performances versus team-mate Yuki Tsunoda - whose case for a promotion appeared to be a non-starter.
Carlos Sainz, who could've been a logical candidate to replace Perez in 2025 as the highest-profile free agent in F1 but whose team-mate dynamic with Verstappen from back in 2015 at Toro Rosso was one Red Bull was desperate not to replicate, signed a multi-year deal with Williams earlier on Monday.
