Sergio Perez rumours ramp up as key players have their say – F1 news round-up

Thomas Maher 30 Oct 2023 10:00 PM

As the dust settles on the Mexican Grand Prix weekend, pretty much all of Monday’s F1 news headlines revolved around the unfortunate Sergio Perez…

With the Mexican driver having crashed out of his home race following an audacious attempted overtake at Turn 1, the rumour mill has gone into overdrive as all sorts of theories regarding his and Red Bull’s future are put forward.

It’s led to a Sergio Perez-heavy day of headlines, so let’s dive into Monday’s F1 news looking back at the Mexican Grand Prix.

Christian Horner weighs in on Sergio Perez Mexico disaster

Having had the frustration of watching his driver once again fail to bring home a strong results, Red Bull boss Christian Horner shared his thoughts following the Mexican Grand Prix.

“For Checo, [it was] just [an] absolutely gutting home race,” he said.

“And he had a rocket ship launch and had so much momentum going into that first corner. You can’t blame him for going for it to try and take the lead at his own race.

“I think that he was having a great weekend up until that point and he was going for the lead at his home race in Mexico City, with a crowd that it’s insane the amount of support behind him, and three into one doesn’t go and unfortunately he was just on the wrong side of it.”

Christian Horner lends support to Daniel Ricciardo after Mexican GP points

丹尼尔Ricciardo得分第七位和艾尔phaTauri’s best result of the season so far, the Australian’s return to form coincided with Perez’s poor showing.

Even worse for Perez, Horner was glowing in his praise of the former Red Bull Racing driver, who rumours suggest is the main rival for Perez’s cockpit.

“He’s back to his old self, he’s relaxed, he’s confident and I thought this weekend… He came into the weekend fully motivated after a tricky Austin coming back from injury and I thought he did a did a great job this weekend,” Horner said of Ricciardo.

“It is great to see Daniel performing so well and fully endorses the reason why we brought him back into the AlphaTauri.

“I thought he was outstanding this weekend, fighting Mercedes in an AlphaTauri. And if it were not for the red flag, he’d have finished further up, so it was a great performance and certainly looked like the Daniel of old this weekend.

“Look at the delta to Max, it was less than a tenth I think so a remarkable performance by him.”

Sergio Perez’s father praises Helmut Marko

The 80-year-old Austrian has drawn plenty of criticism this year, due to his public comments about Sergio Perez’s form and nationality, but the Red Bull motorsport advisor has gained a surprise voice of support and praise as Perez’s father singled him out.

Addressing the rumours of Perez’s future, he said: “Of course, Checo will be driving with Red Bull next year. The Perez family and the Red Bull family are one.

“He has the mentality of a Champion. Checo, Verstappen and Red Bull are a family, but they all work for success. He [Marko] is the best teacher for Sergio.”

Daniel Ricciardo points score ‘justifies’ Red Bull reasoning to replace Sergio Perez

Appearing on the On Track GP podcast, 2015 Le Mans LMP2 winner Richard Bradley suggested that Ricciardo scoring points and thus elevating AlphaTauri in the Constructors’ Championship would help convince Red Bull a change could make economic sense – the Australian’s contribution having had a direct impact on their finances as the Italian team moved to eighth place from last in the Constructors’.

“We all know Perez is bringing a fair amount of money,” he said.

“But I highly doubt it’s more than more than $20 million. So, all of a sudden, Danny Ricciardo has recovered the price difference for the Red Bull group, as a whole, that Perez will be able to bring. So, all of a sudden, maybe that justifies having him.”

Martin Brundle believes Sergio Perez ‘a victim’ of his own good start

Martin Brundle believes Sergio Perez made two critical errors that led to his early turn-in and inevitable collision with Charles Leclerc at Turn 1.

“Perez did everything right until the turn-in into Turn 1,” said the former F1 racer turned broadcaster.

“From fifth on the grid, he made a great start, picked up the slipstream of the three now ahead of him, and spotted the gap perfectly on the left-hand side which was also the cleaner, wider racing line into the first corner.

“他是在某种程度上的受害者自己的伟大的开始nd good decisions because he was now level with [Charles] Leclerc and [Max] Verstappen for the lead. He explained afterwards that having been on the podium here twice he wanted to lead the race and take a glorious victory, which is where it sadly went wrong.”