Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed it is “highly unlikely” that Liam Lawson will replace Sergio Perez in the team before the end of the 2024 Formula 1 season.
Perez’s tumultuous campaign continuing with a nightmare home weekend in Mexico has prompted there to be renewed speculation regarding his position at Red Bull.
The Mexican was eliminated in Q1 as he qualified in 18th place, while a penalty for being up out of position and an incident with Lawson curtailed his point prospects.
Perez’s point-less showing has seen him amass 19 points during the last six rounds, contributing to Red Bull slipping to third place in the Constructors’ Championship.
READ MORE – Red Bull admits ‘difficult decisions have to be made’ on Sergio Perez’s F1 future
His latest slump has come amid Red Bull’s admission that replacing Daniel Ricciardo mid-season at RB was done to assess Lawson’s credentials for the parent setup.
Lawson, who made five outings last term, delivered a sublime race on his return as he stormed from the back row to log points with a run to ninth in the United States.
But while Horner was non-committal on Perez completing the remaining races this year, Red Bull has no immediate plans to place Lawson alongside Max Verstappen.
“I think it’s highly, highly unlikely,” he told Viaplay about Lawson replacing Perez in 2024. “We’ll sit down and look and try and understand what happened in this race.”
Perez blasts Lawson’s attitude
Perez was incensed with Lawson over the clash at Turn 5 on Lap 19 which gave him substantial damage, claiming the New Zealander doesn’t have the “right attitude”.
“I think I don’t have any relationship with him,” Perez, who was the ast classified runner at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, told media including Motorsport Week.
“I think the way he has come to Formula 1, I don’t think he has the right attitude for it.
“He needs to be a bit more humble, you know. When [a] two-time World Champion [Fernando Alonso] was saying things last weekend, he completely ignored him.
“It’s like when you come to Formula 1, you’re obviously very hungry and so on, but you have to be as well respectful off-track and on-track.
“I don’t think he’s showing the right attitude to show a good pace for himself, because I think he’s a great driver. I hope for him that he can step back and learn from it.”
READ MORE – Liam Lawson apologises for rude gesture against Sergio Perez in F1 Mexico GP
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