Red Bull boss Christian Horner is adamant that Sergio Perez should take “some confidence” from Formula 1’s Spanish Grand Prix, despite trailing home in eighth spot.
Perez entered the Barcelona weekend needing to rebound from a challenging run which had comprised him accruing a meagre four points over the past three rounds.
But while he managed to advance to Q3, the Mexican rued balance limitations with his RB20 car as he qualified eighth, six-tenths down on Max Verstappen in second.
A three-place grid drop from the previous race in Canada demoted Perez to 11th, but he rebounded on a three-stop strategy to eighth as Verstappen took another win.
Despite Red Bull’s rivals continuing to close in as Lando Norris proclaimed McLaren should’ve won, Verstappen’s exploits ensured the champions extended its margin.
When asked whether he was concerned about Perez being a non-factor in the front battle again, Horner said: “If I’m not mistaken I think we extended our lead today?”
Horner thinks Perez’s three-place climb on an alternative race plan was a strong result in the circumstances and has backed him to take encouragement into Austria.
“I think that he’s had a couple of difficult races,” he assessed.
“And things haven’t gone his way, and he’s a confidence-driven driver I think, and hopefully he will have taken some.
“He’s back on the points here, drove a decent race, hopefully he’ll take some confidence out of that for the coming races.”
However, Horner conceded that Red Bull needs Perez to be closer to Verstappen to ensure the squad is not compromised in strategic battles with its rivals at the top.
“We need Checo in the mix,” he admitted. “And he knows that. And the team knows that.
“And if he’s on the back end of the top eight you lose strategic options, whether you split it or so on.
“Checo in the first four/five races this year was fantastic, we just need to get him back into that headspace.”
Meanwhile, Perez insists that he is relishing the chance to have another chance next weekend at Red Bull’s home race as he strives to recover from his latest slump.
“It is the best you can have because you take this experience as a learning curve and run to the next one.
“There will be other challenges, it is a long season ahead. It is important to be able to keep our head down.”
