Red Bull's Christian Horner claps back at 'armchair experts' criticizing Sergio Perez's race engineer for the driver's form

Hugh Bird (L), Sergio Perez (C), and Christian Horner (R) (Images via Getty)
Hugh Bird (L), Sergio Perez (C), and Christian Horner (R) (Images via Getty)

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner recently called out people who criticized Sergio Perez's race engineer, Hugh Bird, for the Mexican's poor form in the 2024 F1 season.

Due to his poor performances in the 2024 F1 season, particularly in comparison to his teammate, Max Verstappen, and other elite drivers, there have been numerous rumors that Red Bull may replace the Mexican. Even before 2024, discussions about Checo's potential removal were discussed in 2022 and 2023 as well. Nonetheless, Checo has remained with the Austrian squad.

During the 2024 F1 Mexican GP, criticism of Checo's subpar performances didn't trickle down to his side of the garage. A few F1 fans questioned Checo's race engineer, Hugh Bird's competence, and whether he was bringing the Mexican driver down.

Speaking on the matter in the Mexican GP press conference, Christian Horner initially praised Bird for his work alongside Sergio Perez. He said that this harsh criticism was coming from people who had little to no information about how much he works in the team. He then labeled the critics as 'armchair experts', saying that exposing F1 to a wider audience has resulted in many uninformed critics.

"I think Hugh does a super job. He's a really bright guy. He's grown up in the team. He's out there giving his best for his driver, for his team. And I think it's very harsh for people to judge and criticise from the outside when they have about 1% of the facts of what he's actually dealing with," Horner said.
"I mean, the great thing about opening up everything in Formula 1 is the access that we now give. The downside is the amount of armchair specialists and experts that we get that it opens up to," he added.

When Sergio Perez opened up about his "bulletproof" relationship with his race engineer Hugh Bird

Back in October 2023, Sergio Perez opened up about his relationship with his race engineer at Red Bull, Hugh Bird. Speaking to F1.com, he pointed out one special aspect that makes their partnership "bulletproof". He explained that both he and Bird have always tried to get out of a difficult situation as quickly as possible, without sulking for too long.

Sergio Perez feels that the aim to keep moving forward is one of the key points in their relationship.

"I’ve seen it before with Hugh, we have a bad day and we learn from it. But straight away we are already thinking how we are going to come out of it, and that’s something great to have in our relationship because we never lose faith in each other. We are here together, and we are always looking forward to the next target, and I think that’s something that makes us very bulletproof," Perez said.

After the summer break in August, Hugh Bird was temporarily relieved from his duties as Perez's race engineer since he was expecting a child soon. Hence, Red Bull placed the Mexican's performance engineer, Richard Woody, as his interim race engineer while Bird was on paternity leave.

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Edited by Vaishnavi Iyer
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