Christian Horner reveals crunch heart-to-heart kitchen chat with Sergio Perez

Christian Horner has revealed how he and Sergio Perez had a proper heart-to-heart about the Mexican’s performances recently.

Christian Horner has revealed how he had a heart-to-heart conversation with Sergio Perez as the Mexican driver aims to bounce back from a difficult series of races.

The 2023 championship runner-up has endured a very difficult second quarter of 2024, scoring just 15 points in six weekends to plummet down the order in the Drivers’ Championship.

Christian Horner: Sergio Perez’s best Friday since China

Perez is heading into a critical double-header of races as he aims to stave off the possibility of Red Bull being able to trigger a contract exit clause that could allow them to swap him out for another driver – Liam Lawson being currently at the head of the queue following his successful filming day last week.

With Red Bull’s first priority before that scenario being to give Perez every chance to rediscover the form that has made him a potent teammate for Max Verstappen on many occasions over their four-year tenure together, Perez produced a strong Friday in Hungary to finish the day fourth-quickest.

The Red Bull RB20 has been fitted with significant upgrades, all of which have been fitted to Verstappen’s car, while Perez is missing some of the new components as the factory could only produce enough parts for one complete package as Red Bull brought the upgrades along before the summer break.

Speaking to Sky F1 after Friday’s running, in which Red Bull finished second and fourth with Verstappen and Perez, respectively, team boss Christian Horner explained the differences between the cars.

“It’s been a positive Friday,” he said.

“I would say probably Checo’s [Perez] best Friday since, possibly, China.

“The cars are working well. There’s a slight difference between the cars – both of them have upgrades, and the only bit that Checo is missing is the engine cover and sidepod element, but the floor, the wing, and the rest of it are the same between the two. So we’ve got some great data.”

With the upgrades appearing to hit the spot as Verstappen finished the day a quarter of a second from the front but having used medium tyres to set his quickest time – pacesetter Lando Norris having used the softs – Horner said Perez appears to have found confidence from the improved feeling of the car.

“The car is working quite well and, when the car works well, you see that gap diminish between the two of them and, hopefully, he’ll have taken quite a bit of confidence out of that,” he said.

“I think the car has been performing but it’s been on a bit of a knife’s edge and we’ve seen Max just cope with that a little better than Checo certainly has.

“Hopefully, with the steps that we’ve made here, we’ve got the car in quite a nice window.”

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On Thursday, Verstappen revealed that he has found the “natural” good feeling he had from the RB20 has got away from him as the team has had to chase more “knife-edge” configurations to try to keep ahead of their rivals, and Horner said the team very much needs Perez to rediscover his form in order to more capably back Verstappen in his quest for another title and as Red Bull target another Constructors’ Championship.

“We all want Checo to realise the potential that he did in the first four or five races and we know he’s capable of that – that’s why we took up the option early on him for next year to try and settle him,” he said, referring to the team recently re-signing Perez on a new two-year deal.

“I think he’s been in a bit of a head spin the last few races, but hopefully, today were the signs that he’s coming out of that and the team are working very hard with him to support him and make sure that he does refind his form because we desperately need it.”

Asked to address the speculation regarding Perez’s contract and the prospect of a possible swap, Horner revealed he and Perez had a proper conversation away from the stresses of the racetrack as the Mexican driver visited Horner’s home – Perez has been in the UK following Silverstone in order to take part in Red Bull’s anniversary celebrations last weekend at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

“We have a really open relationship,” Horner said.

“I sat down with him in the kitchen at my house and said, ‘Come on, what’s going on? Is there something else?’ and he was like ‘No, I think I’m just overthinking things a bit too much’.

“I think almost ignoring what’s going on on the other side of the garage will do him a favour, which is the approach that he’s taking now, just focusing on his own performance.”

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