Red Bull Team Principal Christian Horner insists it must “sit down” with Sergio Perez to help him rediscover his form during the remaining rounds of 2023.
Perez endured another disastrous outing in Qatar, trailing home 10th as Max Verstappen picked up his 14th win of the campaign.
With Verstappen sealing the Drivers’ title on Saturday and Red Bull already confirmed as Constructors’ champions, Horner has been adamant he wants Perez to secure second.
However, the Mexican has added just one point across the previous two weekends, leaving him only 30 points ahead of Lewis Hamilton, who retired after first-lap contact.
“I think we really need to sit down with Checo because we know what he’s capable of and he’s not hitting that form at the moment,” Horner underlined. “We desperately need him to find that form to keep this second place in the championship.”
Like at Suzuka, Perez was unable to match Verstappen, eventually getting caught out by track limits and succumbing to an early qualifying exit for the eighth time this year.
Having improved to eighth place for the Sprint, Perez’s Saturday evening ended in the gravel after his attempt to gain two places on Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg ended with the trio colliding at Turn 2.
Starting from the pitlane, Perez’s charge through the pack was stymied by a trio of time penalties for track limits infringements, leaving him to claim only a solitary point.
“It was frustrating that he’s only come out of the weekend with one point,” Horner lamented. “Even starting from the back of the grid, I think there was an opportunity to score heavily today or decently.
“We’ll support him as much as we can because there’s a triple-header coming up, there’s a huge amount of points with Sprint Races as well.”
The middle round of that triple-header will comprise the Mexico City Grand Prix, Perez’s home race. The 33-year-old has scored a podium on his two visits with Red Bull.
Perez will also be backed by a large contingent of supporters next time out in Austin, Texas, which Horner hopes will provide a much-needed confidence boost.
“He’s going to have a lot of support the next two races or next three races really, in Latin America and in the US, and his home race in Mexico City,” Horner explained.
“Hopefully that will help him find the form and the confidence that he seems to have lost a little at the moment.”
Horner believes that Perez needs to “go back to basics” to get out of his current rut and Red Bull is prepared to help him achieve that.
“I think when you get into a bit of a spiral like that, the two things become intertwined. And I think you just need to sometimes sort of take your foot, put it on the floor, stop the merry-go-round and just go back to basics. And that’s what we’ll do,” he noted.
“We all know what Checo is capable of and we want to support him to get back into a position where even as near ago as Monza he was finishing in second place to Max.”
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