Sergio Perez is a man down on confidence in Formula 1. Max Verstappen is thoroughly beating him every weekend, and the pressure from outside Red Bull is mounting. The calls to get him sacked are increasing seemingly every weekend. The Qatar GP was another dismal weekend for Sergio Perez. While Max wrapped up his 3rd Formula 1 title, he only added 1 point to his tally in 2023. Finally, even Christian Horner has admitted that the Mexican’s lack of form is worrying.
Weekend Turned from Bad to Worse
The Qatar GP is made up of very high-speed corners. This means that a driver needs full confidence in his corner to push to the limits and beyond. Sergio Perez doesn’t have that in his Red Bull at the moment.
Sergio Perez started the weekend by getting knocked out of Q2 in the Qatar GP qualifying. He performed better in the sprint shootout. However, during the sprint, he was taken out in a racing incident involving Esteban Ocon and Nico Hulkenberg.
Damage to his car meant he started the Qatar GP from the pitlane. Despite having a very fast car at his disposal, Sergio Perez just couldn’t scythe through the field during the race. To add to that, he made multiple track limit violations and received multiple penalties which hurt his race. In the end, he finished just 10th, behind both the Alfa Romeos, in a Red Bull.
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Strong Words by Christian Horner
Christian Horner has been extremely supportive of Sergio Perez throughout this terrible run of form. However, at the Qatar GP, even he admitted the team now needs to talk to him about his form.
After the Qatar GP, Christian Horner said, “I think we really need to sit down with Checo because we know what he’s capable of and he’s not hitting that form at the moment.”
“We desperately need him to find that form to keep this second place in the championship.”
The only good thing about the Qatar GP for Sergio Perez was that Lewis Hamilton didn’t score a lot of points either due to his first-lap crash with teammate George Russell.
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Christian Horner continued, “I think you just need to sometimes sort of take your foot off, put it on the floor, stop the merry-go-round, and just go back to basics. And that’s what we’ll do.”
