F1 News: Christian Horner Losing Patience With Sergio Perez - "Frustrating"

"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."

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner revealed that the team wants Sergio Perez to find his lost form after the Mexican driver was involved in an incident during Saturday's Sprint race, while Sunday's GP saw him attract multiple penalties. 

Perez's life was made more difficult after being involved in a collision with Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon during the Sprint race on Saturday, forcing him to retire to the pits. Subsequently, he had to start the Qatar Grand Prix from the pit lane after the team rebuilt his car. In the end, Perez finished P10 after attracting several track limit violations.

On the other hand, teammate Max Verstappen sealed his third championship victory on Saturday, before winning the Grand Prix on Sunday. The stark contrast in performance between the two drivers has been irking the team's management.

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Even in Suzuka, Perez's unforgettable series of crashes left not only his team members red-faced, but also his fans. Addressing the concern, Horner felt the need to sit down and talk to his driver. He told the media:

"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.

"It was frustrating that he's only come out of the weekend with one point," he added, "and I think he could have, even starting from the back of the grid, there was an opportunity to score heavily today or decently.

"But we'll support him as much as we can because there's the triple header coming up. There's a huge amount of points with sprint races as well.

"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.

"The most important thing for us is winning both championships. We've done that. Then, what's the next best thing after that would be to have both your drivers first and second."

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He continued:

"You can see Mercedes have a pair, McLaren have a pair, Ferrari have a pair that are quite tight between the respective drivers. I think we've had that at the earlier point in the year. But as the season has gone on it's become more variant. We just need to get Checo back to the best form that he's capable of.

"Last year and this year, he's contributed significantly to the constructors' championship. We desperately want him to find that form and as a team, we need him to.

"We can't afford to have a big split because if, as you would expect, the grid continues to concertina next year, we need both drivers delivering at the top of the game."

Perez recently revealed how he sought help for the mental disturbances he was going through, especially after facing problems in his personal life due to a lack of time. Horner might help Perez talk it out and maybe motivate him to do better.