Red Bull team principal Christian Horner says the upgrades they have brought this weekend appear to have given Sergio Perez more confidence in their car.
Horner said the team “desperately” need Perez to improve his performance as he has scored just 15 points in the last six races, during which time McLaren have closed on them in the constructors’ championship.
Red Bull have brought forward the introduction of an extensive upgrade package for their car this weekend. It was originally due to arrive at the end of August after the summer break, but the team has brought the full upgrade for Max Verstappen’s car and most of it for Perez’s.
Perez ended practice today two tenths of a second slower than Verstappen. Horner called his performance “Checo’s best Friday since possibly China.”
“The cars are working well,” Horner told Sky. “There’s a slight difference between the cars.
“Both of them have upgrades. The only bit Checo’s missing is the engine cover and sidepod element. But the floor, the wing, the rest of it, is the same between the two.”
Horner believes Perez’s deficit to Verstappen in recent races has come about because the Red Bull has became less comfortable to drive as they developed it. Today he said “the car’s working quite well, and when the car works well, you see that gap diminish between the two of them.”
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“Hopefully he’ll have taken quite a bit of confidence out of that. I think the car, whilst it’s been performing, it’s been on a bit of a knife’s edge and I think we’ve seen Max just cope with that a little better than Checo certainly has. But hopefully with the steps we’ve made here, we’ve got the car in quite a nice window.”
Perez failed to score for the third time in five races at Silverstone. Horner described the situation as “unsustainable” at the time, and said today he has spoken with Perez about his difficulties since then.
“We have a really open relationship. I sat down with him in the kitchen in my house and said, come on, what’s going on? Is it something else? And he was like ‘no, I think I’m just overthinking things a bit too much’.
“I think almost ignoring what’s going on on the other side of the garage will do him a favour, which is the approach that he’s taking now, just focusing on his own performance.”
“We all want Checo to realise the potential that he did in the first four or five races,” Horner added. “We know he’s capable of that, that’s why we took up the option early on him for next year to try and settle him.
“I think he’s been in a bit of a headspin the last few races but hopefully today were the signs that he’s coming out of that. The team are working very hard with him to support him and make sure that he does re-find his form because we desperately need it.”
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2024 Hungarian Grand Prix
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