Sergio Perez fans demand Christian Horner do one thing after Liam Lawson’s disappointing Chinese Grand Prix

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Red Bull Racing team principal Christian Horner can’t seem to escape questions about his driver line-up.

Sergio Perez spent the entirety of last season trying to justify his position within the Red Bull team.

Red Bull handed Perez a new contract halfway through the season that was supposed to run until the end of 2026 but instead, he finds himself outside of the Formula a bubble.

Liam Lawson was promoted in Perez’s place over the winter but hasn’t had the start to life at Red Bull that he would have liked.

Horner backed his decision to promote Lawson after overlooking his Racing Bulls teammate Yuki Tsunoda and deciding against giving the experienced Mexican another year alongside Max Verstappen.

However, a swap between Lawson and Tsunoda is already being considered ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix after just two race weekends.

After months of encouraging Perez to try and get closer to Verstappen’s level last year, Horner and Helmut Marko have backed themselves into a corner with Lawson a long way off where they expected him to be.

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Sergio Perez fans want Christian Horner to apologise after Liam Lawson troubles

Posting on Instagram after the race, Horner said: “P4 and a race of two halves for @maxverstappen1 in China. He found some real pace at the end and made a great pass on Charles to finish fourth.

“It was a tough day at the office for Liam. We made some aggressive set-up changes given his position on the grid, which gave us plenty of information, but he struggled to find the balance with the car.

“Lots of lessons to take from Shanghai and we know where we need to improve, but we still managed to come away with 18 points from the weekend.”

Plenty of Sergio Perez fans reacted to Horner’s message, with one person commenting: ‘Bring Checo back or promote Yuki. I don’t hate Lawson, but he is not ready to drive for Red Bull.’

‘You miss Checo right?’ another comment read which was followed up with, ‘Didn’t they change Checo for a faster driver?’

One fan told Horner what he needed to do after Lawson’s P12 finish and said: ‘At least give Checo a ring and say, I’m sorry, the least you could do… after doing whatever you want, live with your decisions.’

Another Red Bull fan explained the decision Red Bull should have made and added, ‘You should have kept Checo or taken Colapinto.’

‘Time to call back Checo, [the] only driver who can score [points] with that car,’ demanded one Perez supporter while another admitted, ‘Steering the car’s performance away from Checo was the wasn’t such a good decision after all I guess.’

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Sergio Perez potentially lining up Formula 1 return with Cadillac in 2026

There’s a chance that Lawson continues to struggle at Red Bull and whichever driver they choose to replace him also fails to come close to Verstappen’s level.

If that happens, Perez’s final years in Formula 1 will need to be reassessed as he was hounded for struggling to get into Q3 at times when Verstappen was challenging for pole position.

Lawson isn’t even at that level yet, although the grid has converged this year compared to 2024.

Perez has been linked with a seat at Cadillac who are preparing for their Formula 1 debut next season.

There may have been concerns that his level had dropped off based on last year but they’ll be quickly revising that opinion after watching Lawson.

Perez’s sponsors have held talks with Cadillac and his fans would love to see him return for one last spell in the sport after being worn down by a worrying situation at Red Bull.