“Who would you put in?” Christian Horner fires back in terse Sky F1 interview over Sergio Perez replacement question

Sergio Perez has been in poor form of late.

Christian Horner has voiced his ongoing support for Sergio Perez as he quickly shut down a question from Sky F1’s Natalie Pinkham.

Heading into the second half of the F1 2024 championship, Red Bull has stuck with the under-fire Sergio Perez to continue alongside Max Verstappen for the immediate future in a bid to bring back the Mexican driver’s confidence.

Christian Horner: Red Bull ‘aware’ both cars haven’t been up there

Heading into the summer break, Perez’s future with Red Bull hung in the balance as, after a poor run of races coinciding with McLaren’s strong run allowing them to close up on the reigning Champions in the Constructors’ Championship, the Milton Keynes-based squad evaluated its driver options.

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson were linked with Perez’s seat but, just as F1 headed into a few weeks of shutdown, Horner made the decision to stick with the Mexican driver alongside Verstappen in a vote of confidence for Perez to bounce back.

His immediate future is thus assured, with Perez being given the chance to impress again at tracks where he’s a known performer – such as Azerbaijan and Singapore, where he’s previously won for Red Bull.

Speaking to Sky F1 after Friday practice at Zandvoort, Horner appeared quite terse as he fielded questions regarding the team’s recent form as he spoke with interviewers Natalie Pinkham, Naomi Schiff, and Bernie Collins.

“10 races is still a chunk of points,” he said, when asked about the chances of Red Bull retaining both titles this year, having seemingly been overcome by McLaren, and perhaps Mercedes, in recent races.

“But we’ve won seven of the first 14 and we’ve qualified first at nine of them. We’ve won two sprint races. But the competition has concertinaed, and we’re going to need both cars firing on all cylinders. So this weekend is important, as they all are, in the run into the end of the championship.”

Asked where he felt things have gone wrong, Horner said: “I love the fact we’re leading both championships and we’ve scored more wins and poles, and yet you’re saying things have gone wrong”, to which the Sky presenters riposted that, based on Red Bull’s high standards, the team has been outscored by McLaren in the last five races.

“Absolutely, and that’s because we haven’t had both cars up there, so we’re aware of that,” Horner responded.

“We’ve taken engine penalties, and we’ve had DNFs, so we’re very clear on what we need to do and turn around, and I’m confident we will.”

An already terse interview then turned quite awkward, as Pinkham asked the Red Bull team boss why Perez has been given more time, given the importance of both cars being required to score points.

“Well, who would you put in?” Horner bluntly said.

“I’m not the boss of Red Bull,” responded Pinkham.

“Who would you change it for? Why would you change it?” Horner said.

“Why have you turned it around on me?” said Pinkham, with Horner smiling back: “You ask all the questions!”

“We know what Checo [Perez] is capable of. We know that, at the beginning of the year, he was scoring and he earned four podiums in five races.

“I think he’s just had a lack of confidence and has ended up in a bit of a spiral. I think he’s had a bit of a reset, hopefully, over the summer break.

“We know that there are tracks that he’s won at coming up – we’ve got Azerbaijan, where he’s won both the sprint race and Grand Prix on the same weekend.

“He’s won a fantastic race in Singapore against Charles Leclerc in mixed conditions. He’s been very quick at Monza. Zandvoort hasn’t been his best circuit. So, of the four races coming up before the next mini-break, I would say this is his most challenging one.”

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While Red Bull has committed to Perez for the immediate future, the possibility of a replacement before the end of the season isn’t completely out of the question – but Horner denied that there’s any set timeline, such as wanting to keep him in the car to get to Perez’s home race in Mexico.

“No, absolutely not. It’s all about performance,” he said.

“For us, we’ve got the two drivers that we believe, in our pool of drivers, are the most capable of giving us the best results. If there was a doubt in that, then we would have changed it.”

Put to him that Perez staying in the seat is down entirely to not having a better option at present, meaning the pressure is still on Perez, Horner said the picture doesn’t change for his driver.

“It’s a pressure business, and all the drivers know they’re under pressure to deliver,” he said.

“That’s Formula 1, and that’s up and down the grid. We know what Checo is capable of.

“We know, when he’s performing, we know what he’s capable of delivering and we just need to get him back in that window, and we’re doing the best that we can to give him the car that gives him that confidence.”

Given that both Ricciardo and Lawson were under evaluation to potentially step in and replace Perez in the second Red Bull, Schiff asked why neither of those two – nor Yuki Tsunoda – had done enough to impress Horner to the point of swapping them in.

“Well, we’ve got the best two drivers, we believe, in this car,” Horner said.

“We have all our data from all of the drivers, we have that information, and, if we felt that there was something better, we would have changed it by now.

“So we believe that what we have is capable of defending the championship. It finished first and second in last year’s championship and finished first and third in the year before.

“You’re very quick to condemn Sergio. We’re trying our hardest to give him the chance to rediscover that form. He has to cope with all the pressure from the media, all the social media that piles in on the back of that.

“He’s a driver that’s capable of bouncing back, and we’re giving him our full support and want to see him respond.”

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