Red Bull sure Sergio Perez’s troubled Imola F1 weekend is “just a blip”

Red Bull F1 team principal Christian Horner is confident Sergio Perez’s poor weekend at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is “just a blip”.

Perez endured a torrid weekend at Imola as he crashed in final practice, before failing to reach Q3 as he qualified a lowly 11th on the grid.

In Sunday’s grand prix, the Mexican could only recover to eighth and was beaten by both Mercedes drivers. He made another mistake by running wide mid-way through the race.

But Horner insisted he is not concerned about Perez’s below-par weekend.

“Our simulations were saying before the race that P7 was potentially optimal and nothing happened, no Safety Cars or anything like that,” Horner told media including Crash.net at Imola.

“He had one trip through the gravel that cost him about six seconds. But I think that was about the maximum that he could take from that grid position today.”

Perez has now slipped to third in the world championship standings, six points behind Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc.

Asked whether it gave Red Bull flashbacks to his 2023 struggles, Horner replied: “I think it’s just a blip. He’s always gone well at Monaco, so we will see.”

While Horner acknowledged it is a crucial time for Perez to perform as he seeks to retain his Red Bull seat for next season, he backed the Mexican’s start to the season.

“It’s a 24-race calendar. He’s had a great start to the year,” Horner stressed. “His approach has been very strong. He’s changed his approach a bit this year and today’s result was dictated by yesterday’s qualifying.”

Perez has made it clear he wants his future resolved in the coming weeks but Horner insisted Red Bull are not setting a specific timeframe to finalise their 2025 line-up.

“The whole driver market is playing itself out and we know exactly where we are at and what our options are. In the timing that’s right for us we’ll make decisions about the future.

Asked if Red Bull just need to iron out the finer terms of a contract extension for Perez, Horner replied: “Checo’s always a very straightforward guy to deal with, so I wouldn’t expect that to be an issue.”