Christian Horner’s feisty “quick to condemn” defence of Sergio Perez

Christian Horner was involved in an awkward interview with Sky Sports F1 as the Red Bull team principal defended the decision to keep Sergio Perez.

Following talks immediately after the Belgian Grand Prix amid intense speculation surrounding Perez’s future, Red Bull confirmed the Mexican would retain his seat for the remainder of the 2024 season.

Horner was in a combative mood when he was interviewed by Sky after Friday practice at the Dutch Grand Prix, and had a terse exchange with presenter Natalie Pinkham.

When asked why Red Bull had decided to give Perez more time to turn around his recent downturn in form, Horner snapped back: “Well, who would you put in?”

To which a startled Pinkham replied: “Well I’m not the boss of Red Bull.”

Horner continued: “No, no but who would you change him for? Why would you change?”

“Why have you turned it back on me?” Pinkham said. “It’s not my decision. I’m interested to know. Is that because there isn’t an obvious candidate to step up? Is that why you’ve held onto him?”

Horner responded: “We know what Checo is capable of. We know that at the beginning of the year he had four podiums in five races.

“He’s had a lack of confidence and has ended up in a bit of a spiral. He’s had a reset, hopefully, over the summer break.

“There are tracks that he’s won at coming up. We’ve got Azerbaijan coming up where he’s won both the sprint race and grand prix on the same weekend. He won another fantastic race at Singapore, against Charles Leclerc in mixed conditions.

“He has been very quick at Monza. Zandvoort hasn't been his best circuit, so of the four races coming up before the next mini-break, I would say this is his most challenging one.”

Perez kept for commercial gain?

There have been suggestions that Perez’s commercial appeal has been one of the reasons behind the decision to retain him, but Horner dismissed the notion that it is important for the Mexican to be kept on until his home race.

“No. It is about performance,” Horner stressed. “For us, we’ve got two drivers that we believe - in our pool of drivers - are most capable of giving us the best results.

“If we had any doubt in that, then we would have changed it.

“It’s a pressure business. All the drivers know they are under pressure to deliver and that’s up and down the grid. Checo, when he’s performing, he is capable of delivering.

“We need to get him back into that window and we’re trying to give him the car that gives him confidence.”

When asked why Yuki Tsunoda has never been brought into the conversation for a seat with the senior team, Horner said: “Well we have the best two drivers, we believe, in the car. We have all the data from all the drivers. We have all the information.

“If we felt there was something better, we would have changed it by now. We believe that what we have is capable of defending the championship. They finished first and second last year, first and third the year before.

“You are very quick to condemn Sergio. We are trying to give him the chance to rediscover that form. He has to cope with all the pressure, the media, all the social media that piles in on the back of that.

“He’s a driver that’s capable of bouncing back and we’re giving him our full support. We want to see a response.”