Christian Horner offers worrying update for Sergio Perez on Red Bull’s F1 driver plans

Christian Horner acknowledged that he is keeping his options open regarding Red Bull’s long-term driver plans. Sergio Perez is out of contract in a year and at risk of losing his seat at Red Bull because he has struggled at times this season with the best car on the F1 grid.

With an agreement until 2028 and on a run of three sequential title victories, there is no doubt over Max Verstappen’s place. Unfortunately for Sergio Perez, the equivalent can’t be said to describe the seat he right now fills.

He completed second behind Verstappen this year yet made difficult work of it in spite of, similar to his partner, having the predominant vehicle on the lattice. By the by, Red Bull need to respect the last year of his ongoing arrangement.

What’s more, there is vulnerability with regards to the Mexican’s future with the group. After three seasons as Verstappen’s teammate, he has yet to even come close to challenging the Dutchman, despite having another full season to audition for a new deal.

Asked by Sky Sports assuming Perez is in a straight battle with Daniel Ricciardo for that seat past 2024, group head Horner conceded not just that the Mexican’s place with the group is unsure, yet that there are a lot more expected contender to supplant him.

He responded, “Well, as a team, you want to field the most competitive pairing you can have, and you want the right dynamic in the team.” Max and Checo [Perez] have been a colossally fruitful matching. Checo in his three years with us has completed fourth, third and second – so he’s on a decent direction!

“It’s great to have Daniel back in the Red Bull fold; he is well-known to us. Obviously, everything is open after 2025. Therefore, it is not a bad place for us to be to have options both internally and externally.”

David Coulthard figures Perez should make huge enhancements in 2024 on the off chance that he is to have any desire for clutching his seat. ” “The Scot said on his Formula For Success podcast that Checo wasn’t as far away from this teammate as some people thought, but unfortunately for him, when Max was winning and he wasn’t finishing second, it really puts a very difficult spotlight on him,” the Scot said.

“He’s endure it, yet he’s most certainly going to, as I would like to think, need to accomplish a serious work over the colder time of year to comprehend or acknowledge the distinctions among him and Max completely. He kind of got his shoulders and chest out when he was talking about the battles for the world championship at the beginning of the year.

“I suspect piece of that was his supervisory crew who are not just there to see him attempt and win Stupendous Prix yet to financially sell him. Thus, in the event that the message is this person’s a title holder in pausing, that helps the exchanges. I think now they presumably need to take a marginally unique view which is he is the best accomplice to a Maximum, a peculiarity and afterward you can hunker down.”