As he chastised Red Bull for its handling of driver Sergio Perez during the Mexican’s struggles against Max Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton made a subtle jab at Christian Horner.
After Lewis Hamilton accused Christian Horner’s Red Bull team of mistreating Sergio Perez, Horner responded sarcastically.
This season, the Mexican driver has mainly had difficulty. Despite having a much faster car than Hamilton all year, he is only 39 points ahead of Hamilton in the standings, while teammate Max Verstappen easily won the championship.
Some of Verstappen’s supporters believe Red Bull has favored the Dutchman, as evidenced by the fact that the 33-year-old was heckled by some fervent Perez fans after winning the US Grand Prix last weekend.
Given that Formula 1 is racing in Perez’s home country this weekend, the subject has also generated a lot of conversation thus far. So much so that Hamilton was pleased to add his own commentary, hurling a striking critique at Red Bull as well as team manager Horner.
Regarding Perez’s situation, the seven-time world champion said, “I don’t think his team has been really massively supportive of him,” before subtly correcting himself with that jab at the Red Bull CEO. “There are many individuals in a team, so I wouldn’t say the team.
“But one particular spokesperson has not been really great in helping psychologically. If I heard Toto [Wolff, Mercedes team principal] talking negatively about me on the weekends it would be really quite tough. So it’s a difficult environment for him, but I think he’s dealt with it to the best of his ability.”
Naturally, those words were put to Horner to get his reaction to the implication that he and his team may have mistreated Perez. And in response he denied the suggestion that the Mexican does not have a strong relationship with the team.
But not before he pointed out that Hamilton had himself been indirectly critical of Perez recently, in a response dripping with sarcasm. Horner said: “It’s very nice that Lewis has so much care and attention [for Perez] when he was questioning the validity of Max’s team-mate only a few weeks ago.
“Hey, there are rumors all the time in this paddock, especially when there’s not much to report. We want to see [Perez] finish second in the championship, which is something we’ve never done before—to have a one-two.” He also has a great relationship with the team and his teammate.”
And Horner also gave a direct response to suggestions that Perez may choose to call time on his F1 career amid his current struggles. “There’s absolutely no plan of any retirement!” he replied.
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