Red Bull “desperately need” Perez to score more points in F1 title battle

Perez has scored points in just three of the last six races and the Mexican’s haul of 16 points since July’s British Grand Prix puts him level with what George Russell has achieved in the Williams. 

As a result, Red Bull has fallen 33 points behind Mercedes in the constructors’ championship with seven rounds to go. 

Perez ended Friday practice for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix with a faster time than teammate Max Verstappen as he rounded out the day fourth in the FP2 timesheets. 

“It’s very important, we need Sergio to start scoring strongly,” Horner said on Friday. 

“I think he scored 16 points in the last six races, which is a combination of bad luck and other misfortune. 

"So we desperately need him to get up there in the remaining races.”

Despite Perez’s best result in the last six events coming with fifth place at the Italian Grand Prix, he was in contention for the podium in both Monza and Sochi. 

Perez, who became the first driver other than Verstappen to win a race for Red Bull with his victory in Azerbaijan earlier this year, has vowed to turn around his form before the end of the season. 

“The last two races he could have been on the podium,” Horner added. “We obviously had the track limit issue in Monza. He had a poor pit stop in Sochi and then of course the tyre choice that we were on proved to be the wrong one on that lap.

“So things could have gone a different way for him, but I’m sure that will sort itself out over the remaining seven races.”

While Red Bull has lost ground to Mercedes in the teams’ standings, Verstappen sits just two points behind Lewis Hamilton in the drivers’ championship with the team mounting its first proper title charge since its last success in 2013. 

Asked which championship Red Bull would prioritise if push came to shove, Horner told Sky: “It’s a difficult one because you are so conflicted because the cash is with the constructors’, but the drivers’ is where the prestige is. 

“So I would say in value they have equal value but the prestige is with the drivers’. 

“I think, from a Red Bull perspective, if you had to pick one over the two, you’d go driver because that’s where the prestige is.

“But we want to be in the number one garage next year, that’s our target and Sergio has got a key role to play in that. We’re still throwing everything at it in both these championships.”