Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has refused to confirm if Sergio Perez will retain his seat as Max Verstappen’s team-mate in the future.
‘Checo’ Perez had another challenging weekend as he was knocked out in Q1 at his home race in Mexico, then had a false start in the race and made contact with RB’s Liam Lawson before coming home the last of the finishers in 17th.
The 34-year-old, who has a contract with Red Bull for 2025, received the backing of Horner during the summer break to stay with the team but that tone appears to have changed with four rounds to go this season.
“Checo, again, has had a horrible weekend. Nothing has gone right for him. He knows F1 is a results-based business,” said Horner.
“Inevitably, when you’re not delivering, then the spotlight is firmly on you.”
Perez is eighth in the Drivers’ Championship and Red Bull have dropped behind Ferrari to third in the constructors’ standings, after Carlos Sainz won the Mexico City Grand Prix, with Charles Leclerc in third.
Horner admitted there will be a point when a “difficult decision” has to be made.
“It (the scrutiny) is constant. It’s always there. From a team’s perspective, we are working with him as hard as we can to try and support him,” he added.
“I think we have done everything that we can to support Checo, and we will continue to do so in Brazil. But there comes a point in time that you can only do so much.”
Asked by Sky Sports F1 if there were any worries that he had competed in his last Mexico City Grand Prix, Perez said: “Zero I’ll be here next year. And I will try to go for the victory because that is my dream.”
Perez: I don’t have a relationship with Lawson
Perez made contact with Lawson on Lap 18 when the pair went side by side through Turns Four and Five in their battle for 10th.
The Red Bull driver came off worse with damage to his sidepod and floor. He struggled for pace over the rest of the grand prix as Lawson only finished down in 16th after a later clash with Williams’ Franco Colapinto.
“Even after the penalty I had for not starting in the box, it was looking great. I was in P10 on the hards,” Perez told Sky Sports F1.
“The coming together with Lawson was very unfortunate. I don’t get it. He went for the incident, damaging both of our races.
“Then I picked up massive damage on the side and it was game over.”
Talk in the paddock in Mexico City is that Lawson could replace Perez next year if he impresses at RB in the remaining races.
Lawson made an impressive return to F1 at the United States Grand Prix by scoring points from the back of the grid, although he had a tense battle with Fernando Alonso, then with Perez and Colapinto in Mexico.
‘I don’t have any relationship with him. I think the way he has come to Formula 1, I don’t think he has the right attitude for it. He needs to be a bit more humble,” said Perez to the written media.
“When a two-time world champion was saying things last weekend, he completely ignored him. It’s like when you come to F1, you’re obviously very hungry and so on, but you have to be respectful as well, off-track and on-track. I don’t think he’s showing the right attitude. I think he’s a great driver and I hope for him that he can step back and learn from it.
“In his first two grand prix he has had many incidents. I think there will be a point where it can cost him too much, like it did this weekend.
“I just think that he has to have the right attitude to say, ‘Look, probably I’m overdoing it a little bit, I will step back and start again’. Because if you don’t learn from your mistakes, Formula 1 is a brutal world and he might not continue.”
Formula 1’s Americas triple header concludes this weekend with the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, with every session live on Sky Sports F1. Stream every F1 race and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime
