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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has finally acknowledged that the performance gap between Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen is untenable going into 2025. The Austrian team is one of the few teams on the grid right now that are still following the somewhat old-school but conventional approach of having a number one and number two driver within the team.
In this structure, there is one lead driver who gets priority on everything, while the second driver is the supporting act. At Red Bull, this role has been divided between Versatppen and Perez, with the Dutch driver being the team leader while the latter is the one who supports him.
The partnership has not worked as well as it would have been hoped because Perez is just too far behind Verstappen in terms of performance. This is something that has stood out in the overall points as well as generic statistics as well. While Red Bull has continued to persist with this kind of structure in the past, it does appear that the team is now concerned with what is at hand, especially as rivals have a considerably better lineup.
Talking to Motorsport, Christian Horner acknowledged that the performance gap between the two drivers is just not tenable at this stage, especially with teams like Ferrari and McLaren having a very strong driver lineup. He said:
“We desperately need answers. When you look at our opponents, Ferrari will be strong next year, with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc. Plus McLaren with [Lando] Norris and [Oscar] Piastri is a strong line-up. We need to make sure that with both of our drivers, that there’s not a big gap between them because you can’t afford to have that.”
Sergio Perez talks about his preparation ahead of the race in Austin
Ahead of the final six races of the season, Sergio Perez talked about his preparation and how he has been focused on getting back to the thick of things after the prolonged 4-week break. Talking about how he'd been in regular touch with the team in the UK while he was back home in Mexico, he said:
“I have been training hard back home in Mexico and in regular touch with the team back in the UK. We are looking to come into Austin in a better place with the car. We have made some changes in the break, aimed at improving the pace and we will see how competitive we are in Austin."
He added:
“It being a Sprint race makes things a little tricky, because we have one practice session to get the car right before it counts but that’s where working as a team comes in and that’s what we excel at.”
Sergio Perez will be looking to make his mark with these 6 races because if he's unable to, Liam Lawson is just waiting in the wings to grab hold of that opportunity.
