Perez 'boosted by Red Bull set up breakthrough'

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Sergio Perez' recent improvement in race weekend performance has been partly due to a set-up change change introduced by Red Bull, according to team principal Christian Horner.

Perez joined the team at the start of the year from Racing Point, but initially struggled to match the qualifying and race performances of his new team mate Max Verstappen.

But the last five races have seen him comfortably finish in the points, and in the most recent two events there have been back-to-back finishes in which he also played a significant role in Red Bull's overall race strategy.

Read also: Red Bull chose podium over fastest lap point for Perez

"I think it's confidence," Horner told reporters at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend after the United States Grand Prix, when asked what he ascribed Perez' recent boost in performance.

"It's been coming for the last few races," Horner continued. "Monza he was strong, Sochi he was strong. He should have been on the podium at both of those races.

"He had a strong Istanbul, and he has been on the pace all the way through this weekend [in Austin]", he pointed out. "He was unlucky not to get the pole yesterday, so it's been been great progress for him.

"So I think it's just confidence. We need him delivering at this time of year. It's a great result for him today.

"We're managing to find a set-up that works for him, and managing to optimise the car around his style a little more.

For Red Bull, Perez' renaissance couldn't have been better timed. With five races remaining in the 2021 Formula 1 world championship, the team is 23 points behind their rivals Mercedes in the constructors championship.

But with podiums for both Verstappen and Perez, they had closed the gap by 13 points in the US alone. showing how close the battle is between them.

Perez also moved into fourth place in the drivers championship and is now 35 points behind his Mercedes counterpart Valtteri Bottas as he heads into his home race.

"Typically Red Bull has been extremely strong in Mexico, so I look forward to it massively," he said. "I think we have a good package, we will be strong over there

"I really hope that we can keep going on the podium again," he added.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.