Horner voices frustration at ‘losing’ Perez

Christian Horner shared his frustration with Sergio Perez's latest qualifying failure, after he was knocked out of sprint qualifying early at the Lusail International Circuit.

The Red Bull team principal did not shy away from his driver's shortcoming after the 34-year-old was eliminated in SQ1. He will start the Qatar Grand Prix sprint in P16.

It is the fifth round in a row - and eighth time including sprint qualifying sessions - the six-time grand prix winner has not achieved higher than P10 in the grid-setting hour, with that one top-10 result coming in Austin.

It is evidently wearing thin at Red Bull, and Horner made no attempt to hide that reality, conceding it is "not great by a long shot" for Perez to yet again come up short.

To make matters worse, his future is already on the line, as it has been for much of the current F1 season, despite being handed a contract extension for 2025.

The sense in the paddock is that Perez has these final two rounds of the year to save his seat, with Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda waiting in the wings at RB.

Whilst team-mate Max Verstappen has wrapped up the F1 drivers' title, Perez is the only driver inside the top four teams to not win so far this campaign. The other seven each have at least two victories to their names.

He sits eighth in the standings and his lack of form goes a considerable way to explaining why Red Bull will likely fail to retain its constructors' championship crown.

More immediately, he faces a difficult sprint before getting a second chance at turning his Qatar Grand Prix weekend around, something that might prove critical come season's end.

"Unfortunately, Checo [Sergio Perez] just hasn't managed to get enough out of the car to get through into [S]Q2," Horner told Viaplay.

"Frustrating to lose him in [S]Q1, so we'll have a look at the data and see what we can change after the sprint race tomorrow."

When Perez's specific sprint qualifying position was put to him, the 50-year-old replied: "It's not great by a long shot. So yeah, frustrating."