Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says Sergio Perez understands how urgently he needs to reverse his slump in form after he crashed in qualifying today.
Perez is due to start Sunday’s race 16th on the grid after spinning into a barrier at turn eight during Q1. He also failed to progress beyond Q1 two weeks earlier at Silverstone and Horner described his latest setback as “far from ideal.”
“We haven’t debriefed yet but obviously he’d set a time that was comfortably in the top 10,” Horner told Channel 4. “Then the rain started to come, he was up on his dash [by] two-tenths.
“But of course, at that point, it started to get slippery. It’s the same for everybody but unfortunately he made quite a big mistake.”
McLaren claimed the front row of the grid for Sunday’s race. They out-scored Red Bull in five of the last six races, during which time Perez scored just 15 points to Max Verstappen’s 119.
Horner said the team are “acutely aware of” Perez’s shortfall in the points standings. “We’re very aware that in the last five [six] races, Checo’s only scored 15 points and it’s unsustainable. They will catch us unless it changes and Checo is very aware of that.
“It’s going to be tough for him to change that from 16th tomorrow. But we’ve got to aim to be in the points again.”
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The Red Bull team principal noted several of their rivals, including junior team RB, successfully got both of their drivers into Q3.
“The problem we have is that the other teams’ drivers are up there in pairings. You’ve got two McLarens, you’ve got two Astons there today. You’ve got two [RBs] out there today. So we can’t afford to have this big delta between the two cars.”
Red Bull chose to change the power unit in Perez’s car after his Q1 elimination at Silverstone, meaning he had to start from the pits. Horner indicated they are not considering the same this weekend.
“Hopefully if there’s nothing that warrants a penalty, like an engine or a gearbox change, then we’d aim to start from the grid,” he said.
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