Red Bull “urgently needs” Perez in the F1 battle with Mercedes

After a disappointing qualifying session, Perez couldn’t factor in the battle for the podium at the Spanish Grand Prix as he recovered to fifth place while teammate Max Verstappen battled Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes for victory.

Verstappen was able to lead much of the race after working his way past Hamilton at Turn 1, but was prone to a two-pronged attack from Mercedes, with Bottas running close behind Hamilton in third place.

This allowed Mercedes to play a bold strategic game that ultimately proved crucial to Hamilton’s win, and Verstappen had to settle for second place.

Horner admitted after the race in Barcelona that Red Bull is relying on Perez to put more pressure on Mercedes so that he doesn’t strategically lose to the reigning world champion.

“I think it’ll come together for him,” said Horner on Sunday.

“He had a day off [on Saturday] and he was compromised in the race behind Daniel [Ricciardo].

“Obviously, he then didn’t manage to advance on a route that is so difficult to pass [at].

On the subject of matching items

“Of course we urgently need him to be in this gap so that Mercedes doesn’t have the strategic options that they had today.

“But I am convinced that this will come for Checo as he will find more self-confidence and time in the car.”

Perez admitted he is still struggling to update himself on the RB16B and ends up every weekend by saying he has only just started because track time was limited.

“It is important to continue these steps and put together the whole weekend,” said the Mexican. “It just takes me a little too long to update myself when we go on a new track.

On the subject of matching items

“You see things come, but not together. But I think once we can put them together we’ll have the pace to go pretty fast. “

“I will be safer with the car. Every time I’m at the end of the weekend I wish the weekend started now because with the limited track time it’s very difficult to get up to speed. “