Horner: Perez has hardest job in F1 against 'relentless' Verstappen

Christian Horner feels Sergio Perez has the toughest job in Formula1 as he tries to match Max Verstappen at Red Bull. In 2023, after astrong start to the year, Perez failed badly as Verstappen won 17of the final 18 races on his way to 19 wins overall and a record575 championship points. Perez could only bank 285 as he finishedrunner-up for the first time in his career, but his long-termfuture at Red Bull was called into question following a run of poorperformances. The Mexican's contract expires at the end of 2024,with Horner believing the mental toughness needed to matchthree-time World Champion Verstappen is tough. Horner on Perez'sseason "I think with the amount of established team-mates [he'shad], it is probably the hardest job in the pit-lane," Horner toldmedia including RacingNews365. "[Max] is operating at such a highlevel and he is relentless, and so the mental aptitude that youneed to be deal with that when every time you see a piece of data,it's like: 'Wow, how did he do that?' "It takes a certain strengthof character to be able to deal with that, and with the form thathe's been in for the last three or four years, he's operating atsuch a high level and it would be tough for any driver. "With anysportsman, your mental strength always plays a key role. "I thinkthere was a decisive moment this year, which is probably in Miami,where Checo had an open goal, he'd won two races in Azerbaijan andin Saudi and you could see his confidence was high. "Max winningthat race having been caught out by a red flag in qualifying andstarting down the field, I think mentally that was quite a brutalone for Cecco to deal with. "And then on top of that, came Monaco(where Perez crashed in qualifying) which compounded things."