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Would Red Bull buy out his contract for next year?
He’s in a situation where he’s clearly under performing, but it doesn’t get as much attention as it would if the championship was even remotely close.
Either Yuki or Danny will have to perform miracles in the second half of the season, otherwise I don't see this happening.
Looking at the previous two seasons, I think (hope) Checo will recover from this and start bringing home good points again, just enough to ensure he's still the safest bet. But Horner and especially Marko won't forget this.
I don't think they'll have to perform miracles, apparently Danny Ric was starting to get close to Checo and Max laptimes in the sim, performed well on the tire test and they know the Alpha Tauri is a dog. This move is just to get a good measure of him vs Yuki, I think.
It will be mostly down to whether Checo gets his shit together or not. Solid points doesn't really matter, WCC and WDC are both a lock this season off of Max alone. What RB needs is confidence that the second driver can consistently support Verstappen at the front next season and beyond, on the off chance that other teams catch up.
Up until today I wouldn't think so but red bull is showing once again that they can be pretty ruthless with underperforming drivers. All bets are off to be honest.
They wouldn't need to if they just send him down to AlphaTauri and tell him to take it or leave it until the contract is up