Red Bull to decide on Albon or Perez “in the coming days” – Horner

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has promised the saga over the team’s second driver will be over “in the coming days” but has refused to hint which way it will go.

The team is considering dropping Alex Albon in favour of Sergio Perez, who is without a drive after being replaced at Racing Point by Sebastian Vettel.

Albon was given until the end of the season to prove he should retain his seat. Now that point has been reached Horner has confirmed there will not be much longer for the duo to wait to hear their fate.

“We now have a full picture of the season and we’ll make that decision in the coming days,” he said. "We’ve always said we’ll go to the end of the year and make our decision at the end of the season"

Horner refused to be drawn on the specific criteria that had to be analysed to determine whether Albon, who joined the team in the middle of last season, is worth keeping on alongside Max Verstappen.

But he did admit the Thai-British driver had enjoyed “probably his strongest race weekend this weekend” in Abu Dhabi which would be “encouraging for him”.

It is a difficult call for the team, however, as Perez is one of the most highly-rated drivers on the grid, and proved his talent when he won the penultimate race of the season for Racing Point in Bahrain.

Albon’s best result this year has been two third-place podiums, and he finished the season seventh in the championship, 20 points behind Perez but crucially after scoring less than half of the 214 points of his team-mate Verstappen.

Asked if Albon’s recent performances were 'more what he was after' Horner added: “It’s certainly what we were expecting to see. I think Alex has driven a good race and he’s had a solid weekend.

“Obviously we have a huge amount of data now. We have all the knowledge across the various circuits that we’ve done and obviously, we will sit down and go through that and come to the right conclusion.”

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