Christian Horner has dropped the biggest hint yet that Sergio Perez’s future with Red Bull Racing is far from guaranteed, noting that “there comes a time when difficult decisions have to be made.”
After a decent start to 2024 that saw him log four early podiums Perez has scored only 47 points in the last 14 races, with a best result of sixth at Zandvoort during that period.
In June, with his stock still high after his good run of results, he signed a contract extension for 2025-’26.
It’s understood that under the terms of the current contract he is not subject to any performance clauses.
It thus remains to be seen under what circumstances he could be dropped should Red Bull decide to make that call, and what the legal repercussions might be, given that if he’s not racing in F1 there would also potentially be an impact on his earnings from personal sponsorship and so on.
The Mexican had a disastrous home GP last weekend, qualifying only 19th after reporting braking issues.
In the race he was immediately handed a 5-second penalty for having his front wheels outside his grid box.
He was making progress through the field when he suffered sidepod and floor damage in a tangle with VCARB driver Liam Lawson – the man who is being lined up to one day take his drive.
Perez survived a stewards’ investigation with no penalty, and also escaped sanction after an incident with Lance Stroll.
He was running 15th when he was called in to take new tyres in an unsuccessful attempt to take fastest lap, and was classified 17th at the flag.
Significantly the overall race result saw RBR demoted to third in the constructors’ World Championship table by Ferrari.
When I asked what’s next for Perez after his difficult home race Horner made it clear that he is under scrutiny.
“Checo again has had a horrible weekend, and nothing’s gone right for him this weekend,” he said.
“He knows F1 is a results-based business, and inevitably, when you’re not delivering, then the spotlight is firmly on you.”
He added: “As I say, F1 is a results-based business, and when anyone is underperforming, of course, there is always going to become scrutiny on that.
“And as a team, we need to have both cars scoring points, and that’s the nature of F1.”
Asked if that scrutiny referred to this season or next he said: “It’s constant, it’s always there. So from a team’s perspective, we’re working with him as hard as we can, to try and support him.
“I think we’ve done everything that we can to support Checo, and we’ll continue to do so in Brazil next weekend. But there comes a point in time that you can only do so much.”
Asked if Perez will finish the 2024 season Horner would not confirm, noting: “Look, as I just said, that scrutiny is always going to be there. And there comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made.
“We’re now third in the constructors’ championship. Our determination is to try and get back into a winning position, but it’s going to be a tall order over these next four races.”
Horner said that lessons would be learned from the clash between the RBR and VCARB cars.
“Well, first of all, I think it demonstrates that you can see that the two teams do race each other,” he said. “And whilst having the same ownership are independent as to the way that they go racing.
“Liam has obviously apologised, I think, to Checo for the incident. And obviously there’ll be lessons that come out of that. But frustrating certainly for Checo’s race to pick up the damage and lose valuable points today.”
Regarding Perez’s race he said: “Unfortunately, he started out of box position, so he picked up a penalty for that. His first lap was strong. His start was strong.
“And then the damage that he picked up with Liam, he picked up about 70 points with the load, with a hole in the sidepod and half the side of the floor missing.
“At that point you’re effectively wounded and scoring points was never going to be on the cards.”
Adam Cooper F1 