RB boss: Perez will return to form in Hungary

SILVERSTONE, England — Red Bull boss Christian Horner has backed Sergio Perez to rekindle his form and has said the Mexican driver only needs a clean weekend to return to his best.

Perez battled back from 16th on the grid to finish sixth at the British Grand Prix on a weekend when team mate Max Verstappen took pole and victory to extend his championship lead to 99 points.

Perez won two of the first four races this year, but his season — and any hope of challenging Verstappen for the title — has crumbled since.

While Verstappen has taken five straight pole positions and six straight wins, Perez’s weekends have been unravelling in qualifying — he’s failed to make the Q3 shootout for pole position on five consecutive occasions.

Horner thinks Perez just needs a drama-free weekend at the upcoming Hungarian Grand Prix to end the downward spiral.

“He just needs to break it now,” Horner said on Sunday evening. “He’ll do it in Budapest, I’m confident.

“The way he races… Some of his moves, the one on Carlos Sainz in particular was quite stunning into Stowe. If you look at his pace in the last stint, he was right there.

“It’s frustrating for him that he has to fight back all the time but he’s just got to sort his qualifying out on Saturday and as a team we will do our best to support him on that.”

Horner added: “I think it’s just one of those things. As in all sport, 90% of it is in the head and I think he just needs a good run and he’ll find his momentum again.”

Red Bull has repeatedly said it has no plans to cut Perez from the team before his contract expires at the end of 2024.

Speaking on Sunday evening, Perez said: “I have full support from Helmut [Marko] and Christian. The whole team is fully supporting me. They know what I can do, they know my potential, and they are fully behind me.”

Red Bull’s third driver Daniel Ricciardo will be in the cockpit for the team at a Silverstone tyre test on Tuesday which has led to speculation he might be being evaluated for Perez’s seat.

Sources have told ESPN that is not the case. Ricciardo is being lined up for a seat at Red Bull’s second team AlphaTauri for 2024.

Perez brushed off the speculation about his future.

“Fully, I couldn’t care less if I’m honest about that,” Perez said. “In F1 in 13 years I’ve seen it all. [I’m] not worried about any of that, I’m mainly focused about getting my season back on track and making sure I keep enjoying this.”