Red Bull still 'looking at the facts' regarding Perez's performance
11/05/2024 10:37 AM
While his team mate Max Verstappen thrilled the fans with a run from 17th on the grid to win in Sao Paulo, Sergio Perez came away from the Sunday's race out of the points and back in the spotlight to retain his seat.
Perez qualified poorly for the previous day's sprint race but battled his way into the top eight for a single point. But when in the Grand Prix, he missed out on the top ten despite starting from P12.
He sent for a spin on the first lap when he applied the throttle at lap 10 which dropped him to the back of the grid, leaving him fighting his way back through the order in tricky wet conditions.
"Nothing really worked today. We started the race with very cold tyres, because we didn't know at the time we could change them like everyone else did," he said.
Having an empty grid spot (after Lance Stroll dropped out on the formation lap) was also a factor. "Not having a car in front, I [lost] the clutch and went into a massive amount of wheelspin and I ended up spinning into turn 10.
"It was a disaster. Then we pitted before the red flag," he said. He was back up to P14 running behind Ferrari's Carlo Sainz by the time the race was red flagged on lap 33, but much of that was down to cars ahead retiring.
He jumped ahead of Sainz at the restart and took advantage of incidents for Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso to climb into the top ten on lap 43 but was unable to fend of Hamilton's fight back in the closing laps.
"We ended up out of the points in P11 when the chequered flag came out, leaving him frustrated. "We missed out on some luck today ... We were on the wrong side of things from the start."
A single point from the sprint was at least an upgrade on the pointless outing in his home race last week. But compared to Verstappen's performance, it's combined to put Perez back in the spotlight about his future at Red Bull.
"It was a difficult race for Checo, spinning at the beginning of the race dropped him down" Horner told the media after the finish of the Grand Prix, quoted by Motorsport Week.
Horner was at a loss to explain why Perez struggled while Verstappen rapidly flew up the order.
"I haven't sat in the debrief, I haven't heard his comments," he said. "But there was nothing evident to me in the race."
Perez failing to score points on Sunday means that Red Bull hasn't maximised its potential as far as the constructors championship is concerned, in which they're currently running in third place.
"Today was an opportunity in the constructors to take a big chunk out of both Ferrari and McLaren," admitted Horner. "Unfortunately we've not been able to capitalise on that, so obviously that's frustrating.
"But we'll go away and have a look at it and come back hopefully fighting hard in Vegas," he added, with two rest weekends before the next race on the calendar.
Could Red Bull consider a driver swap before then?
"I think everything in life is subjective and you've got to look at the facts," commented the Red Bull chief.
"We're working hard with Checo. He had a chassis change this weekend and I thought he drove a good race yesterday. But today wasn't his day."
Two potential candidates to replace Perez both finished in the points on Sunday for sister squad RB, which hadn't gone unnoticed by Horner, while it's rumored that Franco Colapinto is also in the running after his first outings with Williams.
"Liam Lawson did a super job again today, and Yuki [Tsunoda]. Liam particularly considering his experience," Horner agreed. "Franco is another talent, so of course you're always keeping an eye on the market of how things are developing."
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