Marko: Given the alternatives, Perez still our best solution

Granted that Perez struggled massively in 2024, but Marko huffed and puffed quite a bit threatening to blow the Mexican's Red Bull house in, which ultimately was not what went down.

Marko seemed to have agreed with our assessment of the Perez situation and used terms like stability to justify why they kept the driver alongside Max Verstappen despite the continuous pressure on him up until the summer break.

This author explained why Perez was Red Bull's best option, and that is exactly what Marko said in his Speedweek column, also adding that Liberty Media's requirements of a Mexican driver were not a factor.

Marko wrote in his column: "Sergio Pérez will also be in the Red Bull Racing car after the summer break, because we now have races on the tracks where he was good last year and we are banking on stability

"He has repeatedly shown good performances in between, and he was also very fast in third place on Saturday at the last race weekend in Spa," the Austrian added for this report made possible by fairplay app.

Perez qualified well for the Belgian Grand Prix, third, and started second after Verstappen dropped to 11th following his engine penalty, but crossed the finish line eighth but got promoted to seventh after George Russell was disqualified.

Marko gave an justified Perez's disappointing race at Spa-Francorchamps, he wrote: "He was allowed to start from second position and, according to the calculations, third place would have been possible.

"But we saw that his tyres had degraded significantly more. He couldn't push and there was also the fact that we only had two sets of the medium tyres and one set of the hard compound, while the competition had two sets of the hard and one set of the medium tyres available. That was perhaps also a crucial point.

"Pérez doesn't have to become faster, but more consistent," Marko continued. "And given the alternatives, he is still our best solution.

"Reports that his continued involvement is due to Liberty Media's wish for him to drive in Mexico are not true. They certainly want him to contest his home race, but our choice of driver is not based on Liberty's intentions," the Austrian concluded.