Christian Horner has said Sergio Perez’s current form is “unsustainable” as their Constructors’ title rivals continue to close the gap.
Perez’s point-less race at Silverstone means the Mexican has scored just 15 points in the last six races with Red Bull’s once near insurmountable Constructors’ title lead shrinking to 71 points.
Christian Horner provides latest warning to Sergio Perez
Red Bull’s loss of supremacy over the grid has made them vulnerable to the likes of McLaren, Ferrari and possibly even Mercedes in the title fight with only Max Verstappen contributing points at Silverstone.
That trend is one that will concern Red Bull given their rivals have two drivers each regularly in the points and Horner has admitted it is “unsustainable” for Perez to continue to not score points.
“He knows it’s unsustainable to not be scoring points, we have to be scoring points in that car and he knows that,” Horner told media including PlanetF1.com at Silverstone.
“He knows his role and his target and so nobody is more eager than Checo to get back and find his form again.”
Perez was urged to have a good race by Horner given his poor qualifying but having ended two laps behind leader Lewis Hamilton, and his team-mate Max Verstappen, Perez’s future at the team looks more uncertain than ever.
Rumours of Perez’s exit only increased when it was revealed Liam Lawson would be conducting a test at Silverstone this week, something which earned Daniel Ricciardo the AlphaTauri seat last year, but Horner insisted the Kiwi’s test was months in the making.
“If all of you read too much into these things, I’m actually doing a lap at Silverstone in the RB8 on Thursday as well so you never know,” he joked. “In all seriousness, the Liam aero run, it has been planned for a couple of months now.
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“So of course, Checo, he’s under pressure. That’s normal in Formula 1 and when you’re under delivering that pressure only mounts and he’s aware of that, he knows that and this weekend, just nothing’s really gone his way.
“We took a gamble in the race. He started on a hard tyre, he was making decent progress early on in the race. The rain started to arrive, he was P15 or P16 at the time.
“You roll the dice a little at that point, as they did with [Charles] Leclerc. He went on to the inter, if the rain would have picked up he looks a hero. It didn’t so you don’t and then he had an extra stop.
“The time loss of being on an inter on a drying track was haemorrhaging a lot of time for him. So obviously, a lot to look at from over the weekend.”
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