Christian Horner said that he is not worried about Sergio Perez’s form after the Mexican struggled to keep up the pace of the front-runners in Imola.
The Red Bull driver seemed to struggle already on Saturday, as he was eliminated in Q2 and started the Grand Prix in P11. Then, he made his way up back to P8 on Sunday, but couldn’t recover any more positions. Perez also lost some time when he went into the gravel at the Rivazza Corner.
Despite that, Horner believes that, so far, Perez has done a great job, and Imola was just a one-off weekend.
“Our simulations were saying before the race that P7 was potentially optimal [assuming] nothing happened, no safety cars or anything like that.
“He had one trip through the gravel that cost him about six seconds, but I think that was about the maximum that he could get from that grid position today.
“It is a 24-race calendar. He has had a great start to the year, his approach has been very strong and he has changed his approach a bit this year. Today’s result was dictated by yesterday’s qualifying.”
Speaking about next year, Horner said that Red Bull knows exactly all its options and a decision will come when the time is right.