Christian Horner has said it’s impossible to gauge how much better another driver would have fared in Sergio Perez’s Red Bull, had the team opted for a mid-season change in 2024.

Perez’s tough season in 2024 led to Red Bull finishing third in the Constructors’ Championship, despite its success in the Drivers’ Championship as Max Verstappen clinched a fourth consecutive title.

Christian Horner: Red Bull worked very hard with Sergio Perez

Perez had shown strong form through the first quarter of the season, holding on to a strong second place overall and capably adding to Red Bull’s points score up until the Miami Grand Prix.

Scoring 103 points over the first six race weekends, Perez would add just 49 points to this tally over the remaining 18 weekends as the Mexican endured a catastrophic dip in form that saw him score only a sixth-place finish as his best result after Miami.

Such performance cost Red Bull dearly in the Constructors’ where, despite Verstappen’s heroics to score a grand total of 437 points, both McLaren and Ferrari overcame Red Bull’s early lead to finish ahead of the Milton Keynes-based squad by season end.

But, at one point in the season, it looked as though Red Bull was prepared to take a chance on a driver switch for the second half of the year by replacing Perez in the RB20.

Both Daniel Ricciardo and Liam Lawson were seriously evaluated as prospective replacements, with the Australian in the box seat by way of his experience, with the team considering the switch for after the Belgian Grand Prix.

But, in the days after the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps, Red Bull opted to keep the status quo and continue trying to get the best out of Perez – the Mexican’s strong early form showed that, if comfortable, he could capably support Verstappen. However, the gambit didn’t pay off as Perez continued to struggle, eventually leading to Red Bull’s defeat in the championship.

Following the season finale in Abu Dhabi, Red Bull and Perez parted ways as a deal was reached to buy the Mexican out of the remainder of his contract, although he is set to remain involved with the brand in an ambassadorship-type role along with some Red Bull show runs around the world.

The great unknown of last season is whether or not Red Bull could conceivably have won the championship had the team taken the gamble of replacing Perez with Ricciardo or Lawson for the final 10 races of the year, given its 42-point lead over McLaren after the Belgian weekend.

“It’s always easy to look with hindsight, and it’s impossible to know what anybody else would have done in that car,” team boss Christian Horner told PlanetF1.com.

“I mean, Sergio started the season so well – second in Bahrain, second in Jeddah, and tremendously fast in Japan, which is an ultimate driver’s circuit.

“From Monte Carlo on, the wheels came off his campaign and, from that point onwards, we just hemorrhaged too many points.

“We won more races than any other team this year by a significant margin and had as many pole positions [as McLaren].

“Third in the Constructors’ Championship and, when you look at the deficit from the second car, obviously it’s just been too broad, especially from that point in the year.

“That was something that we tried to understand and we were working very hard with Sergio to try and assist some of the issues he had.

“But it was very expensive in terms of points lost in the Constructors’ Championship.”

Perez’s affability and popularity within the team also helped his cause, with the team hoping against hope that he could turn his form around in the final stretch of the championship. With Perez pouring in an intensive effort to address his issues, Red Bull were eager to see his loyalty and effort rewarded, further adding to the desire to keep him in the car and maximise the chances of a turnaround – even when that meant risking the title.

“Look at what Sergio has done for us over the last four years,” Horner said.

“We really wanted to try and help turn his year around. He finished second in the world championship in 2023 and he’s won five races in our car and played a key role in the Constructors’ Championships in 2022 and ’23.

“He played an important role in the ’21 Drivers’ Championship as well. So there was a loyalty to try and really help Checo. But you know, unfortunately, it didn’t materialise.”