Christian Horner has once again set the record straight regarding Sergio Perez’s future, insisting the Mexican does not have the obligation to finish second in the championship to retain his seat with Red Bull for 2024.
Perez has been at the center of a whirlwind of speculation for the past few months due to his persistent struggles this season and inability to compete at the front of the field with teammate Max Verstappen despite being armed with the fastest car on the grid.
The Mexican enjoyed a good start to his 2023 campaign, trading wins with Verstappen in the first four races of the season.
But a crash in qualifying in Monaco triggered a downward spiral from which he has been unable to extract himself.
Horner has repeatedly said that Perez is contracted to Red Bull until the end of next year, but Helmut Marko has hinted that a change could be in store if the Mexican doesn’t raise his game, also reminding him that Red Bull has three other drivers – Yuki Tsunoda, Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson – who could immediately fill his seat if necessary.
Ahead of last weekend’s US Grand Prix, further speculation suggested that Perez’s days would be numbered should he fail to uphold his runner-up spot in the championship, with Lewis Hamilton now 39 points behind Perez in the Drivers’ standings with four races to go.
But Horner denied that such a performance-related clause would be enforced against Perez at the end of the year.
"There's no pre-mandate like that," said Horner in Austin.
"We've never finished first and second in a championship. We finished first and third a few times with Mark [Webber] and Sebastian [Vettel] and we finished it last year with Max and Checo.
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"So, with this car, it would be fantastic, in such a season that we've had, if we could finish first and second.
"But there's no pre-mandate on Checo that you have to finish second or you won't be driving the car next year. That's never been discussed."
Horner insisted that he had no doubts about Perez’s ability to perform on a par with Verstappen, as he did at the start of the year, but suggest that the Mexican is lacking the proper “mindset” to battle at the front.
"We know Checo. If you see Checo's performances in the first part of the year: Bahrain, was very, very tight with Max,” argued Horner.
“The race in Saudi, it was a great race between the two of them pushing each other really hard, with very fine margins.
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"His race in Azerbaijan, winning the sprint and the grand prix there. Those are the kinds of performances that we know he's capable of.
"I think it's just getting him back into that mind frame and to get the most out of him to get him back to those levels of performances.
"Being Max Verstappen’s team-mate is probably the hardest job in the pitlane because he’s operating at such a high level, and it’s relentless," Horner conceded.
“The mental aptitude you need to be able to deal with that, every time you see a piece of data, it’s like, ‘Wow! How did he do that? That takes a certain strength of character to be able to deal with that.
“The form that he’s in, and been in for the last three, four years, it would be tough for any driver on the grid.”
Regardless of what the future may hold for Perez, Horner said that from the team’s perspective there were no concerns on the horizon regarding 2025, when it will need to make a call on its second seat.
"We are certainly not short of options," he said. “Of course, we've got plenty of time to look and evaluate that, but there's so many factors involved."
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