“Hugely frustrating”: Christian Horner holds Carlos Sainz responsible in controversial incident with Sergio Perez

Christian Horner has blamed Carlos Sainz for the incident with Sergio Perez during the 2024 Azerbaijan GP. Speaking to the onsite media, the Red Bull Racing CEO expressed his frustration, emphasizing that Perez was on track for a podium finish, but the clash ruined the result.

Perez was running third when Sainz overtook him, but as he attempted to regain his position, the two collided and ended up in the barriers. While some may consider the incident a racing one, Horner pointed to Sainz’s awareness of the Red Bull being behind him and criticized the Ferrari driver for turning into Perez.

Horner said Sergio Perez’s race performance was worthy of a podium finish at the very least. He explained that Perez initially lost time trailing Alex Albon, who was in fourth, and later got backed up by Lando Norris. Horner highlighted that Norris was defending to protect Oscar Piastri, who was emerging from the pits. In Horner’s view, if not for Norris, Perez would have passed both the McLaren and the Ferrari ahead.

Asked about Sergio Perez’s performance in Azerbaijan, Horner said:

“Frustrating because, you know, with Checo, he certainly should have been on the podium, at the very least in third place, probably second. I think, actually, he could have won that race had it not been for… he lost a lot of time behind Alex Albon initially and then Lando. Whilst he was on new tyres and Oscar was still out on the old tyres, Lando backed him up, which allowed Oscar to keep track position. And I think without that, we would have been ahead of Oscar, and he would have passed Leclerc, and he would have been fine.”

Reflecting on the incident between the Ferrari and Red Bull drivers, Horner added:

“So, hugely frustrating. I’ve just watched it several times on the Sky pad, and you can quite clearly see Carlos. You know, if you take the wall as a reference and the white line on the right-hand side of the track, you see him look in his mirror and just drift to the left, knowing that he [Perez] was there. And Checo doesn’t move left or right, so it’s hugely frustrating to lose that.”

---

Christian Horner hails Sergio Perez’s race performance at the Azerbaijan GP weekend

Christian Horner praised Sergio Perez’s performance during the Azerbaijan GP, emphasizing that the Mexican driver had a strong race, staying close to the cars ahead until the unfortunate crash. Horner noted that the incident with Carlos Sainz was damaging both financially and in the constructors’ championship, with McLaren leapfrogging Red Bull by 20 points as a result. Despite the setback, Horner highlighted Perez’s race pace as encouraging, feeling it was worthy of a win, especially at a circuit where Perez has historically excelled.

Asked about Sergio Perez’s performance over the weekend, Horner said:

“I think it was super. I thought Checo had a very strong weekend and he had great pace throughout that race. I mean to sit on the tail of that for the entire Grand Prix distance, you know, he was on the pace throughout the weekend. Just a great shame for him not to have capitalized with a podium, which has been costly in constructors' points and in crash damage.”

When questioned about seeing Sergio Perez perform well after struggling in recent weeks, the Red Bull Racing CEO responded:

“I mean, he was demonstrating race-winning performance there today. And of course, it’s a track that he’s always excelled at, but I think we’ve understood a few things with the car, and it was good to see certainly Checo’s car in contention for the win throughout the race.”

Red Bull Racing has now dropped to second in the constructors’ championship and is just 31 points clear of Ferrari. Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan confirmed that more updates will be brought to the car in Singapore, a circuit where Red Bull has struggled in the past two years. In the drivers’ championship, Max Verstappen remains in the lead, though his margin has shrunk from 62 points to 59.