Christian Horner offered no assurances over the future of Sergio Perez following the Mexican’s ‘disaster’ at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Perez’s troublesome season showed no signs of letting up in Sao Paulo which saw the Red Bull driver finish in 11th place and a whopping 50 seconds behind race winner and teammate Max Verstappen.
That’s despite starting the race five places ahead of the Dutchman.
Perez, who earlier this year signed a new two-year contract to keep him at Red Bull until 2026, has come under fire for his performances this season having amassed just 151 points in the driver’s championship.
He is currently in eighth place in the standings and his struggles has played its part in Red Bull slipping to third place in the constructor’s championship.
Perez’s fortunes have been at odds with that of Verstappen who has carried the mantle for Red Bull and closing in on a fourth World title.
The Mexican’s future at Red Bull remains unclear and Red Bull team principal Horner, did little to assure Perez that his future is in safe hands.
“Formula 1 as we know is a results-based business and Sergio is very aware of that,” Horner told talkSPORT’s new YouTube channel, The Line Up.
“He’s not happy with how the season has gone for him as he would expect. But he’s big enough and old enough and wise enough to recognise that.
“Our focus is very much still on the constructors championship and we need Sergio to be up there scoring in these last three races if we have any chance of challenging either Ferrari or McLaren.”
Perez, who was unable to secure a single point at Interlagos, felt that everything that could have gone wrong, did go wrong in Sunday’s race.
“It was a disaster because we didn’t know at the time that we could change tyres until the very last minute and there was no time to change them,” Perez said.
“We started the race with very cold tyres and then, as there was no one ahead of me, I went into a wall of water, so the start was a total disaster.
“We were making progress, but unfortunately, we pitted at the red flag, and then at the restart, the visibility was zero, but we were making some progress.”
The Red Bull duo are gearing up for the final three races of the season starting with the Las Vegas Grand Prix later this month.
Verstappen is 62 points ahead of closest challenger Lando Norris with Charles Leclerc a further 24 points adrift.
