Sergio Perez admits having a terrible F1 season in 2024, as Christian Horner reiterates about his position and defends race engineer Hugh Bird.
Among the Top 4 teams and eight drivers, Red Bull’s Perez sits eighth in the standings with 150 points against his name, having had only four podiums in all – his last one came back in China. While the team has had a tough time as well, but Max Verstappen has still managed to get wins and podiums to keep himself in the lead.
Perez’s points drop has helped McLaren to take the F1 constructors’ lead, while Ferrari is just eight points behind Red Bull with five races to go. The drop in results has generated speculation about his future all-through the year and it continues on even now, especially with Liam Lawson’s arrival at Visa Cash App RB.
Perez admits having a terrible season, but insists that he has a contract beyond the 2024 F1 season. “I know I’ve had a terrible season, a very difficult one,” he said to media. “It started really well, but it’s been really, really difficult. And for me, if I get a strong result, it can definitely change my season massively in terms of feeling, personal feelings.
“So I’m really up for it. I feel that I’m in the same boat as the team. We’re working towards solving it. We found a big issue in Monza. So after Monza, we thought we were finding directions. We’re heading in the right direction. I think this is Formula 1. Sometimes the results are not coming, and you just have to make sure you keep your head down, you focus on the stuff that you can control, and the rest is something that you cannot get bothered with.
“I think momentum in Formula 1 is very important, when you just put the car on track and you know that everything is working and you are so further ahead of the people that put the car on track and have a lot of problems. I think it’s the same for everyone, but I also know how this sport works and it’s all about your last race.
“So if I get a good one here… I got a good one in Baku, but it didn’t work out. If I get a good one here, then my season can definitely take a U-turn. The most important is that we are able to feel comfortable with the car, which at the moment we are just not able to unlock the full potential of the car and we come to the weekends trying a lot of things different things every weekend and so that so it makes just the whole Grand Prix a lot more difficult,” summed up Perez.
Horner, meanwhile, agrees the difficulties that Perez has faced this year and like the Mexican, he notes that he has a contract to continue in 2025. Even though there are murmurs about Lawson – who received praise from the Brit – the Red Bull boss isn’t stating anything in public with regards to a senior drive in future.
“Look, Checo’s our driver,” said Horner. “He’s contracted for 2025. He’s competitive. He’s hungry. He’s not happy with where he currently is. So as a team, we’re doing our very best to support him. Obviously, the big weekend for him here, huge support. I think he’s endorsing every product from Uber Eats to toilet roll this weekend, so it’s impressive how many endorsements he’s managed to line up for himself.
“As I mentioned earlier, Checo has a contract for next year, so he’s currently our driver for 2025. Obviously, there is a seat available at VCARB, and they’re all Red Bull racing drivers that are on loan. So, we have the benefit of time to sit down with Laurent and Peter and look at all the options. I was very impressed [with Lawson].
“I mean, to jump in the car, a circuit that he’d not been to before, the pressure of just having to get in and get on with it over a Sprint weekend, I thought he acquitted himself very well. And I think that to go from the back to ninth and score points on his seasonal debut, I thought he did a super job. What can he do at Red Bull?
“I mean, that’s difficult to hypothesize. I mean, he’s obviously a talented guy. We know a bit about him from the work he’s been doing in tire testing and so on. And he’s a talent that’s continuing to nurture and continuing to grow. So it’s interesting to see how he performs over these remaining five races,” summed up Horner, who stepped in to defend Bird and even Perez, considering that the former has received slack for the Mexican’s poor run so far.
“Look, I mean, when you put yourself out there as a race engineer and you’re the voice speaking to the driver, in today’s world of digital media, everybody has an opinion,” said Horner. “Everybody has their own view on things. Now, I think Hugh does a super job. He’s a really bright guy. He’s grown up in the team.
“He’s out there giving his best for his driver, for his team. And I think it’s very harsh for people to judge and criticise from the outside when they have about 1% of the facts of what he’s actually dealing with. So, yeah, I mean, the great thing about opening up everything in Formula 1 is the access that we now give.
“The downside is the amount of armchair specialists and experts that we get that it opens up to. Hugh Bird is a very talented engineer and an important part of our team, and I think any criticism of him is unfair,” summed up Horner.
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