'We've Not Seen Best Of Sergio': Horner Supports Perez About 2024 Split Rumours
F1Sunday, 15 October 2023 at 04:00
Red Bull Racing's Team Principal, Christian Horner, is confident that Sergio Perez is yet to show his best despite his current struggles.
Currently, there are no louder rumours in the F1 world than those about Perez being replaced in Red Bull. The Mexican driver is far behind his teammate, Max Verstappen, in the 2023 World Drivers' Championship, and his performances are also far below what is expected of him.
As a result, the 33-year-old driver's results are under the spotlight, and every single one of his moves is being discussed. That's why the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix certainly didn't help Perez, as he couldn't hold off his teammate from winning the third World Drivers' Championship.
It wasn't just about failing to hold off Verstappen, but Perez seemed to struggle without even thinking about the Dutch driver. He has accumulated three separate penalties, totaling 15 seconds, and it was very important 15 seconds that sent him down the order.
The bad weekend for the Mexican driver came at the time when his closest follower in the World Drivers' Championship, Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, crashed in the first lap, and that's why Horner was upset in his talk to SkySports, as reported by Formula1.com, about what happened during the race.
"Checo’s had a bit of a shocker of a race. He’s had a horrible weekend – the incident yesterday – and then unfortunately the three penalties that he got in the race. Without those penalties, I mean you add 15 seconds to his times, suddenly he’s a lot further up the points scoring on a day that Lewis [Hamilton] didn’t score."
Because of the Mexican's performances, the rumours are loud about someone possibly replacing him for the 2024 season, but when asked about drivers such as Lando Norris or Oscar Piastri, Horner didn't want to fuel these rumours.
"Well, Lando is obviously under contract and I mean, Oscar, you’d be saying as well – he’s under contract as well. All these drivers are under contract, and we’ve got AlphaTauri as well."
As many, including Perez, mentioned before, the Number 11 driver still has a contract with Red Bull Racing for the 2024 season, and that's something that Horner reiterated. He also believes that we're yet to see the best of Checo.
"But we have a contract with Sergio, so we’re determined. We’ve not seen the best of Sergio and we need to unpick what it is that’s causing this slump in form for him. We’re going to support him as much as we can to achieve that."
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