Horner reacts to possible Perez replacement: 'He's doing very well'

Sergio Perez has once again increased the pressure on himself after the British Grand Prix. The Mexican failed to qualify in the top ten for the fifth time and the race again failed to score any points, unlike teammate Max Verstappen who took second place and increased his lead in the championship. Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda are already being mentioned as possible replacements for Perez.

Since Perez's contract extension in early June, little has gone right for the 34-year-old driver from Guadalajara. In the first four races, he still did what he was supposed to do as Verstappen's teammate: finish second behind the Dutchman. Meanwhile, the competition has come close and he has dropped further to sixth in the standings. With Perez's poor form and Red Bull's dealings in recent years with drivers such as Daniil Kvyat, Pierre Gasly, Alexander Albon and Nyck de Vries, there is a lot of talk about a possible replacement for the Mexican. After the Silverstone race, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner addressed this.

Perez is on slippery ice. With Red Bull youngster Liam Lawson and a well-performing Yuki Tsunoda at RB, the Austrian team has a possible new teammate for Verstappen ready if needed. Lawson, who made his spectacular debut at Alphatauri last year, will test at Silverstone in a Red Bull F1 car. But if it is up to Horner, that has nothing to do with Perez's poor form, because the test had been scheduled for months.

Tsunoda is having his best season so far in Formula 1. For most of the races, the Japanese has been faster than teammate Daniel Ricciardo and he has already managed to score 20 points. Horner also acknowledges Tsunoda's good form. "I think he is doing well. He scored another point on Sunday. I think he benefits from having Daniel next to him. I think he has learnt from Daniel, and he will openly admit that he has learnt from Daniel in terms of having an experienced driver and how they deal with the team and engineers. And Yuki is no longer a rookie. He has quite a lot of experience now and you can see he uses it well, even in difficult conditions like Sunday. I thought he drove a very good race," Horner said.