Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner praised Sergio Perez ahead of the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix.
The fifth race weekend of the season has been pretty decent for the Mexican driver so far. He qualified in P6 for the Sprint race on Saturday but managed to climb up the order in just 19 laps and crossed the finish line in P3.
Then he had a rocky start to the qualifying when he almost didn't make it out of Q1 (along with Lewis Hamilton), but in the end, he qualified in P2 and completed the front row lockout for the Red Bull Racing. Christian Horner told Sky Sports F1:
"You guys have a tendency to write him off but he's doing a great job, I think that he's come into the season with a new frame of mind and he's relaxed."
"He's driving the car really well and he's not focusing on his team-mate, it's a different approach. And I think in the first five races, we've seen a really strong performance from him."
Red Bull seems to have a significant pace advantage (as Max Verstappen showed in Sprint) over their rivals at Shanghai International Circuit, so it should be a straightforward race for Perez and the triple World Champion.
"So he's driving well, his confidence is growing and hopefully he can convert that into another good result tomorrow."
The team principal highlighted the 34-year-old's response to the enormous pressure that he faces at the moment as his future in F1 is on the line. He added:
"He feels comfortable in that team, he knows he's out of contract at the end of the season so he's striving for his future."
"He responds to pressure in the best possible way and I think you see that with certain drivers respond to pressure others sometimes wilt."
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