Horner: 'No plan' to promote Ricciardo to Red Bull race team

Christian Horner says Red Bull is "not planning" to promote reserve driver Daniel Ricciardo to a race seat despite Sergio Perez's continued qualifying woes.

At Silverstone last weekend, for the fifth race in a row, Perez failed to qualify among the top-ten, which once again forced the Mexican to fight back through the field on race day.

The Mexican's persistent underperformance in qualifying is upholding speculation that Red Bull could replace Perez, with Ricciardo seemingly a natural choice to fill his seat.

But as much as the Aussie's fans are holding on to that dream, Horner insists there will be no in-season changes at the Milton Keynes-based outfit.

However, the Red Bull Racing boss is eager to see Ricciardo back behind the wheel this week at Silverstone where he will take part in a Pirelli tyre test scheduled at the Northamptonshire track.

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"It’s going to be great to see him back in a Red Bull car and seeing what he can, where he's at. Both on pace and mentally, physically and to get his feedback on this car as well," commented Horner last weekend.

"So, I think it's a good opportunity for him to get back behind the wheel of a car that's just won the British Grand Prix.

"[Promoting Ricciardo to the race team] is not something that we're planning, that's for certain.

"But it was right to give him the opportunity this year to remain within the team and keep him around the sport. It would have been a loss to the sport for him just to disappear.

"I didn't recognise Daniel over the last couple of years. So, I'll be very interested to see what kind of job he does."

As for Perez, Horner is backing his driver to bounce back in Hungary next week, and the team will do all it can to support the Mexican's turnaround.

"At the moment, he’s running second in the championship and he’s extended his lead over Fernando," said Horner who believes that Perez needs "an arm around his shoulder".

"We’ve got a good car, but we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got both cars in contention.

"If you look at his pace in the last stint, he was right there," he added.

"It’s frustrating for him that he’s having to fight back all of the time, but he’s just got to sort his qualifying out on the Saturday and as a team, we’ll do our best to support him on that."

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