Horner: Handing Perez early contract didn't work

Perez had a decent start to the 2024 F1 season, scoring four podiums in the first five races, but after that, it all went pear-shaped for the Mexican, who has failed to make it into Q3 in qualifying nine times since Miami.

As the season enters its final weekend, Perez's future within Red Bull is under threat with talks that he will not be around for 2025 despite having a contract that was announced early in the season when the team wanted to help their driver clear his mind and focus on his driving.

Horner reflected on the early decision to extend Perez's contract and said in the F1 team principals' press conference on Friday: "Obviously, at the time, Sergio was performing extremely well.

"I think he had four podiums in the first five races and, in order to settle his mind and extend that run of form for the rest of the season, we elected to go early - which obviously didn't work. That's just life sometimes.

"But I think with Checo you have to look beyond this year for the contribution that he's made to our team," the Red Bull Racing boss pointed out. "He's been a great team player. He's a great person. He's extremely popular within the team.

"He's worked very hard over the four years that he's been with us and he's played a vital role in the constructors’ championships that we've won, the five grand prix victories that he had in our car.

"It's been the most successful pairing that we've ever had, finishing first and second in the drivers' championship last year."

As for the options to replace Perez, many names have been linked with the seat, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, and Franco Colapinto, to name a few.

On that matter, Horner commented: "We're fortunate that we've got a tremendous pool of talent. It was good to see Isack Hadjar getting a run out as well in free practice.

"We've got two talented drivers in VCARB, so until the situation is clear with Sergio and what he wants to do, everything else is purely speculation," the Briton concluded.