Horner: Very nice that Lewis has so much care and attention

Perez started the 2023 season with a bang, with a couple of wins early on but after the Miami Grand Prix the wheels fell off his campaign or teammate Max Verstappen found a couple more gears or both.

But what was a hint of a title challenge against Verstappen, including two superb victories in Jeddah, and in Baku by the Mexican veteran, began to crumble after that. It was April-May time when it became clear the title has been destined to one mantlepiece: the one at the Verstappen home.

Perez was troubled and in trouble, his form in freefall, a slew of qualifying fails and downright bad performances by a veteran of 250-plus GP starts, to the point now that teammate Verstappen has almost doubled his points with four rounds remaining in the Championship. And obviously, triggering criticism of Red Bull's number two driver.

Although he has a contract with RBR until the end of 2024. But some suggest he might be out of a drive when this season ends should he not raise his game before the decision time comes to buy him out of the contract. But those are the rumour mills, the latest to emerge in Mexico (of all places) have the 33-year-old quitting F1 at the end of this season.

Adding fuel to the fire, ahead of this weekend's Mexico City Grand Prix, Hamilton stated during an interview with Fox Sports: “I don’t think his team has been really massively supportive. Not all his team, because there are a lot of people on a team, but a couple. One of them particularly, a spokesperson, has not been really great, not helping psychologically.

Asked about Hamilton's comments by F1.com, Horner stated: “First of all, there’s absolutely no plan of any retirement! It’s very nice that Lewis has so much care and attention [for Perez] when he was questioning the validity of Max’s teammate only a few weeks ago.

"But look, there’s always rumours that are circulating in this paddock, especially when there’s very little to write about," he added, amid a strong push to have AlphaTauri returnee Daniel Ricciardo replace Perez as well as reports of interest by RBR in the services of McLaren hotshot Lando Norris. An approach the 23-year-old Englishman turned down.

Regarding support from within RBR lacking for Perez, Horner said: "He has a great relationship with the team, a strong relationship with his teammate, and we want to see him finish second in the championship, which is something we’ve never achieved before, to have a one-two.”

Indeed many believe that the "one-two" achieved come Abu Dhabi's season-ender is Perez's saving grace to remain with the team and see out his contract. Trying to convince them next year that his game is, at last, only second to Verstappen on the grid.

As for the remaining races, this weekend's Grand Prix in Mexico, Horner is adamant that they will not relent despite having both 2023 F1 titles bagged long ago: “Trackside, we’re absolutely focused on the four remaining events. They’re like cup finals for us.

"Obviously back in the factory, a lot of the attention is on 2024, as I guess most of the teams are. But certainly, every individual race has great value to us," added Horner, which will hardly be music to the ears of their rivals.