24/08/2024
NEWS STORY
Christian Horner rigorously defends the decision to stick with Sergio Perez, insisting his team has the two best drivers in the world.
Meeting immediately after the Belgian Grand Prix, Red Bull went into the summer break determined to end the speculation over the Mexican's future, insisting that he would see out the season despite a concerning loss of form.
The decision took many by surprise, and understandably Horner was under pressure to explain as the title fights resumed.
"We know what Checo's capable of," he told Sky Sports, "we know that at the beginning of the year, he was scoring four podiums in five races.
"I think he's just had a lack of confidence and has ended up in a bit of a spiral," he added. "I think he's had a bit of a reset hopefully over the summer break.
"It's all about performance," he continued, "so for us we've got the two drivers that we believe in our pool of drivers are the most capable of giving us the best results. If there was a doubt in that we would have changed it.
"We've got the two best drivers we believe in this car," he insisted. "We've got all the data from all the drivers so we have that Information. If we felt there was something better we would have changed it by now. We believe that what we have is capable of defending the championship."
Despite his staunch defence of the Mexican, Horner admitted that one of the reasons the team now finds itself under intense pressure from McLaren and Mercedes in the battle for the constructors' title is that Perez isn't contributing his fair share of points, however the Briton is confident that this will change.
There are tracks that he's won at coming up," he said. "We've got Azerbaijan where he's won both the Sprint and Grand Prix on the same weekend, he's won another fantastic race in Singapore against Charles Leclerc in mixed conditions, he's been very quick in Monza. "Zandvoort hasn't been his best circuit, so over the four races coming before the next mini-break, I would say this is his most challenging one.
"You're very quick to condemn Sergio," he told the Sky team. "We're trying our hardest to give him the chance to rediscover that form. And he has to cope with all the pressure, the media, all the social media that piles in on the back of that.
"He is a driver that's capable of bouncing back, and we're giving him our full support and want to see him respond."
Check out our Saturday gallery from Zandvoort here.