"You think he's on the ropes, and then he bounces back”: Christian Horner defends Sergio Perez amidst recent slump in form

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner defended Sergio Perez after his second successive DNF in Canada saw him face criticism from all quarters last weekend. The Mexican driver signed a two-year contract extension with the Austrian team that would see him race for them until the end of the 2026 season.

The new deal coincided with Perez's dip in form which raised several eyebrows as there were viable candidates on the market for the seat, such as Carlos Sainz. He followed up the good news with a Q1 exit and later a DNF in the main race at the 2024 Canadian GP when he went off in the wall all by himself.

Speaking with F1.com after the race last weekend, Christian Horner described Sergio Perez's weekend as 'horrible'. He said:

“It was a horrible weekend for Checo and we’ve picked up some damage so he’ll need to come back strong in Barcelona.”

Horner defended the 34-year-old by having his back and vouching for his skills to bounce back from the dip in the form, adding:

“You see this with Checo time and time again, you think he’s on the ropes and then he bounces back. He’s a tough racer, a tough character. It hurts him more than anyone else and he’ll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he’s capable of and the form he showed in the first four races of the year."

Sergio Perez analyzes his Canadian GP performance last weekend

Sergio Perez stated that it was a difficult weekend for him in Montreal as he failed to get out of Q1 in qualifying after further damage on Lap 1 after slight contact with Pierre Gasly. He later spun on his own in the damp conditions on Turn 6 to bring curtains to his weekend.

As per F1.com, the Red Bull driver said:

“I think I had a lot of damage early on in the race with the front wing. I guess Pierre just didn’t see me there, because he just came to the inside and I was there.

"I made a mistake going into Turn 6, I just touched the wet patch and once you do that it’s really game over."

He accepted that it was a "very tough weekend" but was confident that he could bounce back as it "is a long season ahead and we will be back to the form that we had earlier.”

After successive DNFs in Monaco and Montreal, Sergio Perez has slipped to P5 in the Driver's Championship and sits a point behind Ferrari's Carlos Sainz in 107 points compared to the Spanish driver's 108 points after nine races and two Sprints thus far in the 2024 season.