Horner reveals discussion with Pérez amid poor results

Red Bull Racing's Team Principal, Christian Horner, has praised Sergio Pérez for his best Friday practice performance in months. This turnaround follows an meeting aimed at addressing the Mexican driver's recent string of poor results.

Pérez clocked the fourth-fastest time in the second practice session at the Hungarian Grand Prix, despite driving a car with fewer upgrades than his teammate, Max Verstappen. Triple world champion Verstappen finished second-fastest, trailing McLaren's Lando Norris.

"Today has been a positive day," Horner commented, shedding light on his candid conversation with Pérez. "We have a really open relationship, and I sat down with him in the kitchen of my house and said, 'Come on, what's going on? Is there something else?'"

Pérez reportedly admitted, "'No, I think I'm just overthinking things a bit too much.'" Horner suggested that Pérez could benefit from ignoring the happenings on the other side of the garage, and simply focusing on his own performance.

The meeting appears to have paid dividends. Pérez expressed satisfaction with the progress made during the day's sessions. "We made the right changes and took the right direction. This is the most comfortable I have felt with the car at this stage of the weekend in a while," he said. "The steps we have made throughout the day have been the best we can do, and that is really positive. We are feeling good and the long run looked promising too."

Looking ahead, Pérez remained optimistic: "Our time will come, it's head down for now and look forward to tomorrow."

Red Bull's technical director, Pierre Wache, acknowledged the struggle Pérez has faced and emphasized the team's commitment to helping him maximize the car's potential. "We have some feedback. We try to help him," Wache said. "Sometimes he's unlucky, you know, it's what happened in some qualifying that could affect the overall result of the race. We are trying to help him to have a better result for the next races before shutdown."

Formula One enters an August break following the Belgian Grand Prix on July 28, offering a critical period for Red Bull and Pérez to recalibrate and aim for stronger performances in the second half of the season.

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