Sergio Perez endured the latest of many difficult F1 weekends he has experienced this season at the Qatar Grand Prix, as Christian Horner’s frustration with the Mexican driver widening.
Christian Horner plans to speak to Sergio Perez as pressure continues to mount on his Red Bull seat.
The Mexican still has a weekend to forget in Qatar. He crashed during the Sprint race, although unlucky, handing the 2023 title to teammate Max Verstappen.
And Perez did not make a good impression at Sunday’s Grand Prix. He was hampered at the pit lane start, but he had new engine parts and also benefited from an early safety car period to help him catch everyone. But he only finished 10th. He was one place higher on the course, was hampered by two time penalties for regularly exceeding track limits, and managed to secure third place at the end, this allowed him to only win by one point overall over the weekend.
Such results are simply not enough for a Red Bull driver, especially this season with cars that are too strong compared to their opponents. And this is the latest in a long series of worrying missed opportunities and errors by the Mexican this year.
Throughout the fight over his driver, principal Horner has defended Perez as best he can and continues to insist the team plans to honor his contract through the 2024 season. But even he is now starting to show clearer signs that he is losing patience with the 33-year-old.
“I think we really need to sit down with Checo because we know what he is capable of and he is not in that form right now,” he said after the race at Losail International Circuit. “We really need him to regain that form to keep second place in the rankings.
“So it’s frustrating that he only came out at the weekend with one point and I think he could have, even starting from behind the net, had a chance to score big today, or score deservedly. worth. But we will support that. The more the better because there are going to be three titles. There are also a lot of points with Sprint races. »
Horner then lamented Pérez’s failure to deal a fatal blow to Lewis Hamilton’s ambitions to finish second in the championship, after the Briton crashed in the opening lap. He added:
“[Perez] had a terrible weekend, yesterday’s incident and then, unfortunately, he had three penalties in the race.
“Without those penalties, when you add 15 seconds to his time, suddenly he’s a lot ahead in the points standings on a day when Lewis didn’t score, so it’s a missed opportunity to really try to solidify this moment. place.”
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