My guess is that Perez performances are worrying, so they need some data on Danny Ric in a car to get a handle on both him and Yuki in case Checo doesn’t shape up and drastic action needs to be taken for next year.
If RB thinks other teams could catch up to them, they need a number 2 driver that can support Max at the front, and right now Checo isn’t doing that.
It’s been clear for a while that NdV has no future in RB anyway, so they’re not losing much doing this.
My guess is that Perez performances are worrying, so they need some data on Danny Ric in a car to get a handle on both him and Yuki in case Checo doesn’t shape up and drastic action needs to be taken for next year.
If RB thinks other teams could catch up to them, they need a number 2 driver that can support Max at the front, and right now Checo isn’t doing that.
It’s been clear for a while that NdV has no future in RB anyway, so they’re not losing much doing this.