Christian Horner calls out ‘armchair specialists’ with Perez engineer under fire
Hugh Bird has been Sergio Perez's race engineer ever since the Mexican joined Red Bull.
Christian Horner has called out the “armchair specialists” who have blamed Red Bull race engineer Hugh Bird for Sergio Perez’s problems.
Bird has been criticised in Mexico following Perez’s poor form but Horner suggested such criticism was undeserved.
Christian Horner defends under fire Red Bull race engineer
With Perez admitting 2024 has been a “terrible” year and Horner agreeing with that assessment, it is no surprise that the driver’s loyal home fans may look for reasons behind his lack of performance.
And it seems some have settled on Hugh Bird, Perez’s race engineer, as being part of the problem. That criticism was put to Horner during the Mexican GP weekend and Horner said it was “very harsh” for people to criticise Bird.
“When you put yourself out there as a race engineer and you’re the voice speaking to the driver, in today’s world of digital media, everybody has an opinion,” Horner told the media, including in the PlanetF1.com, in the FIA team boss press conference at Mexico City. “Everybody has their own view on things, and I think he does a super job.
“He’s a really bright guy. He’s grown up in the team. He’s out there giving his best for his driver, for his team and I think it’s very harsh for people to judge and criticise from the outside when they have about 1% of the facts of what he’s actually dealing with.”
With Bird’s messages to Perez being broadcast, Horner suggested that while that has allowed fans more access behind-the-scenes, it has meant the rise of “armchair specialists”.
“The great thing about opening up everything in Formula 1 is the access that we now give,” the Red Bull CEO and team principal said. “The downside is the amount of armchair specialists and experts that we get that it opens up to.
“Hugh Bird is a very talented engineer and an important part of our team, and I think any criticism of him is unfair.”
More from the Mexican GP weekend
Lewis Hamilton recalls Verstappen incident branded ‘out of order’ by Newey in FIA plea
Franco Colapinto receives apology after last-minute heartbreak at US GP
Bird has been with Red Bull since 2012 and has been Perez’s race engineer since the Mexican joined the team in 2021.
Horner meanwhile suggested that he was looking for a strong weekend from Perez at his home race.
“It’s been a bad year for Checo,” he said. “He started strongly and obviously he’s struggled for form since pretty much Imola onwards and it’s been sporadic.
“We saw flashes of performance. Azerbaijan, arguably, he could have won that race, almost a month ago. So we know what he’s capable of and we’re hoping that we can give him the setup and the confidence in the car to extract the kind of performances that we know he’s very capable of.”
Read next: McLaren reveal Mexico GP upgrades in bid to regain dominance over F1 rivals
