Red Bull says Sergio Perez needs to rally from “horrible” Canada weekend
Sergio Perez needs to rebound from a "horrible" Canadian GP weekend, Red Bull boss Christian Horner admits.
Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner says Sergio Perez needs to bounce back from what he described as being a “horrible weekend” at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Perez’s recent dip in form continued in Canada as he endured a nightmare weekend. First, he was dumped out in the first part of qualifying for the second successive event, before struggling to make up ground in the race and eventually crashing out.
Prior to the weekend, the Mexican was handed a new two-year contract to stay at Red Bull despite question marks over his form of late.
Horner admitted Red Bull “got away with it” in Montreal as Max Verstappen claimed victory and their rivals faltered, but backed Perez to turn things around.
“It was a horrible weekend for Checo and obviously, we picked up some damage,” Horner told Sky Sports. “He’ll need to come back strong in Barcelona.
“Thankfully, Ferrari had a shocker and didn’t get any points so that let us off the hook somewhat, but we need both cars scoring.
“We got away with it today but we need Checo back up there where he was at the beginning of the year from Barcelona onwards.”
Horner added: “What we see with Checo time and time again is that when you think he’s on the ropes, he bounces back.
“He’s a tough racer and he’s a tough character and it hurts him more than anybody else.
“He’ll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he’s capable of and that he showed in the first four races of this year.”
Perez has now slipped to fifth place in the drivers’ standings, 87 points behind teammate Verstappen.
“It has been a very tough couple of weekends. I think we will just regroup, put our heads down and learn from the weekend," he said.
“On Saturday, we had a bit of an issue that prevented us from qualifying a lot higher – which we understood straight after qualifying, which is positive.
“Obviously, there is a long year ahead and I am sure that we will get to our form.”
Things aren’t set to get any easier for Perez at the Spanish Grand Prix after he picked up a three-place grid penalty for driving his car in an unsafe condition in an attempt to avoid a Safety Car in Sunday’s race.
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