Formula 1 Mexican GP
Red Bull "can only do so much" for Perez as future hangs in balance
Red Bull team boss does little to defuse Perez's precarious situation
Filip Cleeren Erwin Jaeggi
Published: Oct 30, 2024, 1:23 PM
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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has insisted his team has done all it can to support a struggling Sergio Perez after a nightmare home weekend in Mexico.
Perez was eliminated in Q1, copped a time penalty for parking forward of his grid spot and then went on to lose further ground after he and RB's combative Liam Lawson collided in Turn 5, resulting in floor damage.
After conceding to having a "terrible" season, Perez's calamitous weekend has put further pressure on the 34-year-old to step up, and pressure on Red Bull to reconsider its options for 2025 after sliding to third place in the constructors' standings.
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When pressed on the Mexican's future, Horner said: “Checo, again, has had a horrible weekend. Nothing has gone right for him this weekend.
“He knows Formula 1 is a results-based business and inevitably, when you’re not delivering, the spotlight is firmly on you.
"There is always going to be scrutiny on that. As a team, we need to have both cars scoring points and that is the nature of Formula 1.”
Asked if that scrutiny applied to 2025 or if Red Bull could make a change sooner than that, Horner confirmed Perez would be in the car in Brazil but didn't offer much reassurance beyond the upcoming Sao Paulo weekend.
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
“From the team’s perspective, we’re working with him as hard as we can to try to support him," he added. "We’ve done everything that we can to support Checo and will continue to do so in Brazil next weekend.
"But there comes a point in time that you can only do so much. There comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made.
"We’re now third in the constructors’ championship. Our determination is to try and get back into a winning position but it’s going to be a tall order over these next four races.”
Perez was furious with Lawson's aggressive driving style, blaming the New Zealander - who is in the running for Perez's seat - for ruining his chance to score points as his floor damage resulted in a big downforce loss.
But Horner didn't appear to side fully with either driver. "That's racing. We saw a lot of tough racing out there," he told Sky Sports F1.
In his print media session, Horner - drawing attention to recent insinuations that Red Bull and RB work together as an entity - then added: "I think it demonstrates that you can see the two teams do race each other and, while having the same ownership, are independent in the way that they go racing.
“Liam has apologised to Checo for the incident and obviously, there will be lessons that come out of that. But it’s frustrating, certainly for Checo’s race, to pick up the damage and lose valuable points.”
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Formula 1Perez: Lawson doesn't have the right attitude for F1
Formula 1Lawson apologises for giving Perez the middle finger at F1's Mexico GP
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