Christian Horner insists Sergio Perez has the “same chance” as Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to win this year’s Formula 1 world championship.
Perez has upped his game alongside Verstappen this season, with the gap between the pair noticeably closer in both qualifying and race trim than it was last year.
This was evident at the Monaco Grand Prix when Perez outpaced Verstappen all weekend, claiming his third career victory to move to within 15 points of Verstappen in the drivers’ standings.
The Mexican’s upturn in form hasn’t gone unnoticed by Red Bull, who announced on Tuesday Perez had signed a two-year contract extension to remain at the team until 2024.
Now Perez is pushing Verstappen harder than ever, Red Bull boss Horner was clear it will not back one driver over the other in the title battle.
“It doesn’t matter to us which of the two is world champion,” Horner said, as quoted by Motorsport.com. “Of course, the constructors’ is enormously important.
“But whether it’s Max or Checo, they’re both Red Bull drivers, and they’ve both got the same chance. Of course, it’s a long, long season, and it will have its ebbs and flows. But it’s great to have both drivers right at the sharp end.
“Checo is in the form of his career, he’s doing a great job. And it’s not a one-off. I mean, we saw his pole position in Jeddah. And he’s really hitting a rich vein of form. So that’s fantastic for us. But we need both drivers working the way they are together.
“Because Ferrari had the quicker car, certainly in qualifying, whether it was in the races is unknown, but they are massive opponents, and we’ve got to work collectively to make sure that we get both drivers ahead of them.”
Perez was left questioning his position at Red Bull prior to Monaco after he was ordered to play second fiddle to Verstappen at the Spanish Grand Prix, despite feeling he had a real chance to win the race.
Horner stressed the mater was internally discussed after Barcelona, with Perez satisfied over where he stands in the team.
“We discussed obviously immediately following the race in Barcelona, and there was absolutely zero issue,” said Horner.
“He understood very clearly what the picture was, I think he’s just in a great space at the moment, his confidence is high, he’s driving very well. And the time difference between him and Max is, is much, much closer.”
Perez said he was in no doubt Red Bull would give him equal status when it comes to fighting for the drivers’ title.
“It’s fairly clear,” he said. “They didn’t need to say it, but it’s clear, I think on my side of the garage it’s clear and inside the team. Otherwise I wouldn’t be here. So it’s fairly clear.”
Verstappen dismissed suggestions that his relationship with Perez would be tested should both remain in contention for the drivers’ championship by the end of the season.
“Why would that change? “We work really well as a team,” Verstappen said.
“We always try to optimise the car and work for the team, and we can accept when somebody does a good job or does a better job and I think that’s very important, because that’s how you are respectful to each other.
“And yeah, may the best man win at the end, right?
“We always, of course, trying to do the best we can on the track but we also respect each other a lot and try to score the most possible points every single weekend for the team.”
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