Underfiring Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has received a supporting hand from team boss Sergio Perez. The Mexican driver is far from his best in race qualifying and has failed to gather ground in race drive in the recent outings. He has not been able to reach Q3 in any of the previous five races and has been knocked out in the first session on two occasions.
But the Red Bull boss Horner has backed the driver to come good at the upcoming race at Budapest. On Perez's ongoing run, Horner said, "He just needs to break it now. He’ll do it in Budapest, I’m confident." After the first five races in the 2023 season, Perez was only 14 points behind Championship leader and teammate Max Verstappen. But the next races have seen Perez fall 99 points behind the Dutch driver.
'It's frustrating for him...': Horner
The Team boss also claimed that the driver makes some brilliant moves but it is frustrating for him to keep chasing the race. "The way he races… I mean, some of his moves in the race [at Silverstone], the one particularly on Carlos Sainz, was quite stunning into Stowe. If you look at his pace in the final stint, he was right there. It’s frustrating for him that he’s having to fight back all the time, but he’s just got to sort his qualifying out on Saturday and as a team, we’ll do our best to support him on that," Horner said.
Horner further stated that having your mindset perfect is 90% in sports. "I think it’s just one of those things. As in sport, all sport, 90% of it is in the head and I think he just needs a good run, and he’ll find his momentum again," the boss added.
Perez has been chasing the pack well on Sunday races despite not being on top in qualification sessions. But the Red Bull boss wants to help Perez in that aspect in all the ways. “You’re always looking for perfection in this business. Of course, we’re always trying to say, ‘Where can we better?’ In this instance, it’s like, ‘OK, where can we help Checo to achieve what he’s doing on Sundays on Saturday?’.”
