'Red Bull should have said goodbye to Perez much earlier'

"In terms of pure performance, they should have said goodbye to him much earlier," is Danner's opinion in conversation with Motorsport-Magazin.com. The 47-time Grand Prix contender points to the turmoil and internal strife raging at the Austrian racing stable. According to him, no one benefits from this. "I think there is still an incredible rumble within Red Bull," he said. It's the same with the drivers now, of course. You don't really know where you stand. Is that good for the team? No!"

Consequences for new world title Red Bull?

Red Bull are defending a 42-point lead in the last 10 Grands Prix (and three sprint races). To leave Perez in the second RB20 is, in Danner's view, a (too) big of a risk. "We will see if this was the right is decision for Red Bull. In any case, the constructors' championship is now a lot more likely for McLaren than for Red Bull," he said.

The 66-year-old German then goes on to explain why he has that thought: "With Sergio Perez, not a single mistake or single incident. It was something new in almost every race and in terms of performance he was really miles behind Max Verstappen. After all, Formula 1 is clearly a performance sport and if the driver - for whatever reason - does not deliver the performance, then he is just out of luck. Then it's 'goodbye'."

So it's not a 'goodbye' for now for Perez, however. The experienced driver will 'just' appear at the start in Zandvoort at the end of August and he still has a contract until 2026.

This article was written in collaboration with Kada Sarkozi