Christian Horner grilled about shaking his head with despair at Sergio Perez

Christian Horner was asked about the “frustration” he displayed by shaking his head despairingly at Sergio Perez.

Red Bull’s under-fire second driver caused a red flag in qualifying for last weekend’s F1 British Grand Prix by spinning at Copse.

Team principal Horner was spotted shaking his head at the mistake which forced Perez to qualify 19th at Silverstone.

“Of course there’s frustration when both of your cars aren’t performing collectively,” Horner said in response to his visible annoyance at Perez’s error.

“It was frustrating to lose Checo in Q1. He had missed P1 because of Isack Hadjar driving, he’d had a decent P2, we felt that he should have been around the top six.

“To lose that car in Q1 was very frustrating. That’s where we’re at.”

Horner has admitted that Red Bull’s decision to reward Perez’s early-season form with a new contract was a ploy to remove pressure, and add confidence.

But it hasn’t worked. His series of recent mistakes have resulted in more questions about whether Red Bull will remove him from their car.

Horner was asked if Red Bull had committed to him too early with a new contract.

“Every driver is different,” he answered.

“Some drivers need an arm around the shoulder, some need a kick up the arse, and sometimes it varies from week-to-week.”

Perez started the British Grand Prix from the pitlane and ultimately finished 17th, with only Zhou Guanyu behind him, after Red Bull’s gamble over his tyre strategy did not pay off.

But his latest troubling weekend allowed McLaren to close the gap to Red Bull to 78 points in the constructors’ championship.

“They have, they took seven points out of us,” Horner reacted.

“It’s something that we’re acutely aware of.

“To win a constructors’ championship you need both cars scoring.”

Perez initially responded to early-season pressure by finishing P2, behind Verstappen, three times to deliver the ideal results to Red Bull.

At the same time, his mooted replacement Daniel Ricciardo was trapped in a run of poor form driving for the RB sister team.

But as the field has converged as the RB20’s dominance has waned, although Verstappen remains fighting at the front, Perez’s woes have returned.

Questions have come back for Ricciardo about replacing Perez, while Red Bull junior driver Liam Lawson tested the RB20 for a promotional day (although Horner insists the timing is coincidental).