With numerous speculations regarding Sergio Perez’s future at Red Bull, it is widely believed that the only way for the Mexican driver to retain his Red Bull seat is to claim P2 in the driver’s championship. However, as per a recent report by PitDebrief, Christian Horner has revealed that it isn’t the case at all, and things aren’t that simple.
When asked by the media outlet if losing out to Hamilton for P2 would mark the end of Perez at Red Bull, Horner replied in the negative. He said, “It’s not as binary as that. It’s, you know, you’ve got to look at the circumstances and so on.”
If he were to lose out to Lewis for that runners-up spot, would that mean he’s gone or is it not really as binary as that?
Christian Horner: It’s not as binary as that. It’s, you know, you’ve got to look at the circumstances and so on.
SOURCE: @PitDebrief | @JOC__1991 pic.twitter.com/a59HRa8g4w
— Junaid #JB17 (@JunaidSamodien_) October 31, 2023
Horner also explained that Perez has a contract with them till the end of 2024, and Red Bull intends to go ahead with the former Racing Point driver for the 2024 season. Horner said, “We’ll give him all the support that we can to ensure that he finishes second, but there’s no prerequisite that if he doesn’t finish second, you’re out.”
There have been numerous allegations that Red Bull haven’t been supportive of Perez and have been biased toward Verstappen. However, Horner’s latest statement would be a huge relief for Perez as he can now be sure that he has the backing of the team despite his recent underperformance – the latest of which came at the Mexico City GP.
Sergio Perez fails to deliver yet again
A lot was expected of Sergio Perez at his home race in front of his home crowd, but the burden of those expectations turned out to be too heavy for the shoulders of the 33-year-old driver. Things started going wrong for him right from Saturday when he was out-qualified by Daniel Ricciardo in an AlphaTauri.
It went from bad to worse on Sunday as Perez found himself tangled up in a crash with Charles Leclerc on the first lap of the race, which forced him to retire. What was even worse was that Hamilton managed to put in a strong performance and finished P2, slowly bridging the gap to P2 in the Driver’s Championship.
Antes que nada solo quiero darles las gracias por todo de corazón, son los mejores fans del mundo.
Hoy lo dejé todo en la pista, vi el espacio y arriesgué. No fue culpa de Charles, simplemente fue un incidente de carrera.
No me salió pero lo dimos todo por buscar esa… pic.twitter.com/SKXU9VXsJ2
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) October 30, 2023
The incident with Leclerc meant that the home crowd had completely turned hostile against the Monegasque. However, Perez himself clarified that it was nothing more than a racing incident.
Currently, Perez is only 20 points ahead of Hamilton in the standings with 3 more race weekends to go. With the current upsurge in form shown by the Mercedes, Hamilton has quite a decent chance of catching up and overtaking Perez for P2 in the standings.
