‘There comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made’ – Horner on Perez’s future as Red Bull lose ground

Christian Horner has hinted Red Bull could be forced to reevaluate Sergio Perez’s position at the team after he suffered a bleak home race weekend in Mexico that saw him miss out on points entirely.

For the fifth time this season, Perez failed to score in a Grand Prix after he was knocked out in the first part of qualifying and went on to sustain damage that ruined his race.

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His Grand Prix also got off to a terrible start when the 34-year-old was hit with a five-second time penalty for being too far forward in his P18 starting slot.

Although he recovered a sizeable number of places and looked set for points, a heated battle with RB’s Liam Lawson led to him losing a significant amount of pace once the side of his car picked up damage following contact.

Coupled with Max Verstappen’s hefty penalties and P6 finish, it was a far from ideal weekend for Red Bull as Ferrari overtook them in the constructors’ standings thanks to their double podium finish.

Asked about the Mexican driver’s disappointing race on home soil, Horner said: “Checo again has had a horrible weekend. Nothing’s gone right for him this weekend. He knows F1 is a results-based business and inevitably when you’re not delivering, then the spotlight is firmly on you.

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“As a team, we need to have both cars scoring points and that’s the nature of F1. From the team’s perspective, we’re working with him as hard as we can to try and support.

“I think we’ve done everything that we can to support Checo, and we’ll continue to do so in Brazil next weekend, but there comes a point in time that you can only do so much.”

Red Bull are now 25 points behind Ferrari, and a whopping 54 adrift of leaders McLaren – and with just four races left this year, P3 would be the team’s worst result in the constructors’ championship since 2019.

And with some reports proclaiming Lawson could be a Red Bull racer sooner rather than later, his on-track duel with Perez was made particularly dramatic, but the Team Principal would not be drawn into speculation over a sudden driver change.

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“Look, the VCARB guys didn’t have a great day either,” Horner said. “It’s amazing how quickly the world can change in seven days.

“That scrutiny is always going to be there and there comes a point in time that difficult decisions have to be made. We’re now third in the constructors’ championship.

“Our determination is to try and get back into a winning position, but it’s going to be a tall order over these next four races.”