Christian Horner put on the spot about re-signing Sergio Perez “too soon”

Christian Horner batted away a question about handing Sergio Perez a new contract too soon at the F1 Austrian Grand Prix.

Perez’s streak of impressive form in the first rounds of this year earned him a new deal and a renewed stay at Red Bull.

But he has endured a miserable run more recently, leading to questions about whether Red Bull acted too prematurely.

Horner responded to Sky Sports’ question about giving Perez a contract too early into the year: “Checo’s position within the team, and what he has contributed to the team, warranted that.

“But, of course, there is always pressure to perform.

“That is irrelevant of contracts, which we will never go into the detail of.”

Perez’s form also declined last season leading to increased scrutiny about his suitability as Max Verstappen’s teammate.

But, on Saturday in Austria, he qualified in eighth which is the first time for five grands prix that he has been inside the top 10.

“Checo knows it’s a pressure business,” Horner said.

“He knows the scrutiny, especially in a car that is winning races with the other driver. That’s Formula 1.

“That pressure naturally exists on any teammate that is under-delivering.

“The media start asking questions and it’s easy to lose your head at that.

“I’ve been impressed by Checo, over the past four years, that whenever the pressure is really on, and it’s on now, he’s always been able to bounce back.

“He’ll have to dig deep to do that.”

Horner added: “We are doing our best to support him and find what is missing.

“The first four or five races were extremely competitive.

“Whatever has happened to cause him to drop off…

“In Suzuka, one of the toughest tracks in the world and a real drivers’ circuit, he was a tenth of a second off Max.

“Here, with nine corners, the gap is significantly greater.

“We need to get to the bottom of it, and help him recover.”

Horner assessed Perez’s qualifying on Saturday at the Red Bull Ring: “He used up all his tyres getting into Q3. It’s such fine margins.

“Having used all four sets getting to Q3, it was always going to be limited what he could do. We were still surprisingly close to the Ferraris and Mercedes.

“We will race better. We have a good strategy, two sets of hards available to us.”