“He’s vital” – Red Bull are confident of a strong contribution by Sergio Perez as the battle with Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton enters the final stage.
Sergio Perez has proven to be a significant upgrade on Red Bull predecessor Alex Albon, forming a strong association with Max Verstappen. This has helped Red Bull stay in the race for the Constructors’ Championship, won by Mercedes over the last seven seasons.
With just two races to go, team principal Christian Horner expects the Mexican to play a significant role in helping the team break the intolerable dominance of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton.
“He’s vital. He’s going to play a crucial role in these next two races – as is Valtteri [Bottas].
“I think that we need Checo. He’s had a good run of form recently, finding his feet and confidence with the car. And really since, I would say, pretty much Monza, his performances have grown and grown and grown. I think that we really need him right there the next couple of weekends.”
Sergio Perez’s Saudi Arabia Friday
Sergio Perez had a mediocre Friday – P11 in FP1 and P9 in FP2. This might concern Red Bull, but the Mexican is optimistic, considering he performs strongly on Sundays and is renowned for his tyre management.
“I think we saw a bit what happened when everyone was on the soft tyre at the end. So it can get very tricky, very messy, very quickly. And then on the long run, we didn’t have enough laps to get a read.
“I think there is plenty more to come tomorrow. So hopefully we are able to find the right balance, the right pace to be in contention for tomorrow.
“I think that it will be an interesting race. A lot of things can happen – we saw Charles [Leclerc] today (crash). It’s a track that if you make a mistake, it can be extremely costly. So we just have to stay there and be on it as much as possible.”
