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Horner ‘needs’ Perez to rediscover his form from ‘Barcelona onwards’ after another tough weekend in Canada.
Perez suffered a second consecutive retirement in Canada, leaving Red Bull vulnerable heading into the Spainish Grand Prix. Photo credits: Jayce Illman via Getty ImagesWith Sergio Perez’s Red Bull contract ending in 2024, there were question marks over who could be taking the seat beside Max Verstappen for 2025 and beyond.
The Mexican has had a great start to the 2024 season, finishing on the podium in four out of the five first races. However, in the past couple of weekends, the Red Bull driver has struggled to keep up the momentum dropping to 5th in the standings.
Red Bull, however, reaffirmed their support for the driver and announced a two-year contract extension just before the Canadian Grand Prix.
What happened in Canada?
Disaster struck for Perez at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. The first of the issues arose during Qualifying when Perez struggled to escape Q1 and would be starting from 16th on the grid.
Despite his history of producing some incredible recovery drives, Canada was not one of them. The first incident took place on the opening lap when Perez came in contact with Pierre Gasly, though he left the scene unscathed, he struggled to move up the pecking order. On lap 53, he lost control of his RB20, damaging his rear wing. He limped back to the pits, leaving pieces of carbon fibre around the circuit before retiring for the second consecutive weekend.
Adding to his woes, the stewards issued a penalty for the incident, handing the No.11 driver a three-place grid penalty for the Spanish Grand Prix.
Horner gives his thoughts
After a weekend to forget for the Mexican, team principal, Christian Horner issued his thoughts on the ‘horrible’ weekend his driver faced.
“That was a horrible weekend for Checo and obviously he picked up some damage, so he’ll need to come back strong in Barcelona.” He said to Sky Sports.
Red Bull are now facing a looming threat from Ferrari who are catching the Milton-Keynes based outfit in the Constructors’ standings, the two teams are split by a mere 49 points. However, even with Perez’s point-less weekend, the gap remained the same, after both Ferrari’s had to retire from the race.
“Thankfully Ferrari had a shocker today, so they didn’t get any points, so that let us off the hook somewhat.” Horner expressed.
“But we need both cars scoring. We got away with it today, but we need Checo back up there where he was at the beginning of the year from Barcelona onwards.
“What we see with him time and time again, you think he’s on the ropes and then he bounces back. He’s a tough racer, he’s a tough character.
“It hurts him more than anybody else and he’ll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he’s capable of – and showed in the first four races of this year – in Barcelona.
“The margins are fine, but he knows what’s at stake.
“We need him performing at the top of his game because in the Constructors’ [standings] we’ve got three teams that are nipping at our heels and you’ve got to be firing on all cylinders.”
Perez looks to bounce back
Despite the recent difficulties, Perez remains confident and believes he will regain his form in the coming weeks:
“Yeah, we lost some momentum obviously in the season, but I’m also very positive that there is a long season ahead and that we will get our form back.” He said to F1.
“I will be working really hard in the coming weeks with the team to make sure that we are back to that form.” Perez concluded.
Featured image credits: Christian Barni ATPImages via Getty Images