Christian Horner claims Red Bull ‘can’t afford’ Sergio Perez’s disappointing result in British GP Qualifying

Red Bull began the season with an unprecedented advantage over its rivals. On the contrary, as the races went by, this advantage seemingly shrunk, which enabled teams like Mercedes and McLaren to jump into the mix. This left the Brackley-based team vulnerable and required both of its drivers to continue their charge to secure the constructor’s title. However, with Sergio Perez getting eliminated in Q1 at the British GP, Christian Horner claimed that the team could not afford his mistakes.

Sergio Perez started the season with hopes of silencing his critics. It seemed like the Mexican had conquered his weaknesses and appeared to be getting stronger. However, this illusion soon broke as Perez started to fail to score points for the team. On the other hand, a similar glimpse was witnessed at the British GP, as Perez beached his car during qualifying.

Observing his lack of results, Red Bull supremo Christian Horner stated that the team to get back up from such blunders.

Nobody is more disappointed than Checo[Sergio Perez] obviously, it's not what we can afford, so he's going to have a big race tomorrow. Checo is our driver, he's the one we want to get going, we hope that he can recover from this tomorrow.

Christian Horner said in a post-qualifying interview

Horner claimed that no one would have been more disappointed by Perez than himself. However, the latter’s mistakes are costing the team valuable points and this trend can’t continue for longer.

Sergio Perez gave his verdict on subpar qualifying performance

While a sword would be left hanging on Perez’s neck after his underwhelming performance, his mistake might not have been entirely his fault. During Q1, the track conditions kept changing and dared drivers to venture onto the soft tires, which appeared to have been a massive gamble as the 34-year-old slid across Copse and beached the RB20.

The Mexican elaborated on how it was frustrating for him.

It's very frustrating, I let my whole team down... I was trying to get out but it was difficult to do anything so it's frustrating and it hurts to let the team down in that way, especially because we had that really strong weekend getting up to now. Unfortunately we didn't get to show the full pace.

Sergio Perez said in a post-qualifying interview

The 34-year-old reckoned that he had let his team down with his antics. He further iterated that he had been having a strong weekend until his recent off-track venture, which led his hard work to go down the drain.

Despite the weather conditions, multiple drivers were able to gather their wits and remained unscathed. Thus, Horner and Co. would not be entirely happy with Perez’s constant run of subpar results.

In case you missed it:

• WATCH: Esteban Ocon FURIOUS after being knocked out of Q1 at British GP Qualifying
• Lando Norris delighted to have 3 Brits ‘lock out’ the top 3 at British GP Qualifying

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