Renowned F1 media personalities such as Lawrence Barretto, Chris Medland, and Nate Saunders all were present at the Red Bull Christmas lunch in their base in Milton-Keynes. The general mood in the lunch was jovial and happy as the Austrian team is just coming off the back of a historically successful season. However, things turned really awkward when team principal Christian Horner asked the pundits about the biggest mistake of 2023. In addition to being awkward, it also gave rise to a lot of misunderstanding.
While answering this question, Saunders, who was enjoying the wine, had a candid response as he revealed in The Pad-Hoc podcast. He said, “Probably Checo!” There was complete silence following this. Fellow F1 journalist Luke Smith who was also present at the party started giggling.
However, Horner was stern and the situation turned seemingly critical soon. In the end, the fellow F1 personalities brought the situation under control by deviating from the topic and everyone ended up laughing. By that time Saunders, who works with ESPN understood that he messed up big time. Despite the initial discomfort, the situation became light-hearted and everyone left the party smiling.
Christian Horner outlines Sergio Perez’s improvement for 2024
Nate Saunders labeled Sergio Perez as the only part of Red Bull that didn’t click. However, one has to argue that the Mexican driver heavily underperformed. Even though he was driving the same RB19 car as Verstappen, he was miles away from matching him.
Now, Horner has outlined the duties of Perez ahead of the upcoming season. Since 2024 is a monumental year for all the teams and especially for Red Bull to keep hold of their dominance, they would need Perez to step up his game.
Second best in the world. Had some rough times this season, but the important thing is we never gave up.
We’ve learned a lot and we’ll come back even stronger in 2024. We achieved everything as a team! Great job @redbullracing !@Max33Verstappen deserves that championship more… pic.twitter.com/ZHU9nrZ25b— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) December 8, 2023
Speaking to Sky Sports following the season-ending Abu Dhabi GP, Horner said that the 33-year-old needs to perform better in qualification. “He’s just got to sort his Saturdays out. His race pace is there, his race craft is fantastic. He’s probably overtaken more cars than anybody this year, but we just need him to be starting in the first four rather than ninth or 10th,” said the British boss as per F1.com.
Nevertheless, Sergio Perez acknowledged the sectors he needs to improve and believes he can come back stronger next season. The 2024 F1 season is very crucial for Perez as well because it will decide if Red Bull is going to keep the driver for the future or let him go.
