Sergio Perez: Red Bull chief Christian Horner explains making Alex Albon reserve driver

“I think all of us wanted to see Alex succeed. What we said was we would give Alex the season and not make any decisions before, to have a complete set of data. And that’s obviously what we did.

“But when you look at the data, and you look at the ratio between the two drivers, it was a decision that was obviously very much driven by that.

“It was just impossible to ignore Sergio’s performance in the Racing Point over the course of the year and particularly in the second half of the season.

“He’s a very rounded driver now and I think he has an uncanny ability to over-deliver in machinery he has had available to him.

“If you look at the amount of podiums and success he’s had over the years, I think he will be a good addition to the team.