Red Bull boss Christian Horner plan's to reignite the Mexican spark in Sergio Perez

The Mexican sensation has hit a rough patch recently, prompting Horner to announce plans to sit down with Perez and reset their racing strategy after a challenging weekend at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Perez's roller-coaster season started strong, with two victories in the first four races and an impressive win at the Azerbaijan Sprint. He was firmly in the title hunt alongside his teammate, Max Verstappen. However, a pivotal moment occurred when Perez crashed during qualifying at the Monaco Grand Prix, leading to a string of inconsistent performances.

While Perez appeared to have found his footing after the summer break with a commendable second-place finish at Monza, his recent outings in Singapore and Japan were less than stellar. 

The setback continued in Qatar, where he failed to advance to Q3 during Friday's qualifying session at the Lusail International Circuit. A subsequent crash in the Sprint race further marred his weekend, despite him being blameless in the incident. The subsequent pit lane start and multiple track limit violations resulted in a 15-second time penalty, yielding only a solitary point for his tenth-place finish.

This missed opportunity was particularly frustrating for Perez, as it coincided with Lewis Hamilton's early race retirement, leaving second place in the Drivers' standings up for grabs. 

Horner expressed his disappointment, saying, "I think we really need to sit down with Checo because we know what he's capable of, and he's not hitting that form at the moment. We desperately need him to find that form to keep this second place in the championship."

Despite Perez's recent struggles, Horner remains optimistic about the future, with a gruelling triple-header of races ahead, spanning the United States, Mexico, and Brazil. Horner affirmed, "But we'll support him as much as we can because there's the triple-header coming up [United States, Mexico, Brazil]. There's a huge amount of points with sprint races as well."

To resolve Perez's performance woes, Horner believes it's time to simplify things. He stated, "I think you just need to sometimes sort of take your foot off, put it on the floor, stop the merry-go-round and just go back to basics, and that's what we'll do. We all know what Checo is capable of, and we want to support him to get back into a position where even as near ago as Monza, he was finishing in second place to Max."

As the Formula 1 circus heads to Austin, Texas, for the next race on 22 October, all eyes will be on Perez to see if the reset button has been pushed successfully. 

The Circuit of the Americas, a 5.5-kilometre track, will host the United States Grand Prix, a race that has gained popularity in recent years due to the sport's resurgence in America. Additionally, fans can look forward to more excitement with the return of the Miami Grand Prix and the debut of a new event in Las Vegas later in the season, signalling Formula 1's growing presence in the United States.

 

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