Christian Horner said Red Bull "got away with" Sergio Perez's wretched weekend in Montreal and ordered his driver to bounce back swiftly.
Perez celebrated a new contract that was announced this week, keeping him with Red Bull until the end of 2026. But that seat will only be secure if he lives up to performance expectations, which he did not do at the Canadian Grand Prix.
He struggled in qualifying and was out in the first part of the session. He qualified only 16th fastest on the grid and failed to convert that into any points on race day, while team-mate Max Verstappen won.
Perez crashed and caused damage to his rear wing which proved to be terminal to his race, 19 laps from the end. But even before then he found it tough to overtake on a track which had dried out on the racing line but remained wet elsewhere.
And it is not the 34-year-old's first underwhelming result of the year. He also failed to finish in Monaco last month and has just four points to show for his last three Grands Prix - a tally nowhere near good enough for someone driving for the defending champions.
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Team principal Horner needs Perez to pull his weight and challenged him to bounce back next time out at the Spanish Grand Prix. He said: "It was a horrible weekend for Checo and, obviously, we picked up some damage. He'll need to come back strong in Barcelona.
"Thankfully, Ferrari had a shocker and didn't get any points so that let us off the hook somewhat, but we need both cars scoring. We got away with it today but we need Checo back up there where he was at the beginning of the year from Barcelona onwards."
Christian Horner needs Sergio Perez to perform better (Getty Images)As Horner mentioned, Red Bull's closest challengers Ferrari also had an awful weekend. Both their drivers failed to finish - Charles Leclerc suffered from engine problems while Carlos Sainz made a mistake and crashed in an incident which also ended the race of potential future Williams team-mate Alex Albon.
Red Bull extended their championship advantage to 49 points as a result but Horner knows the gap will quickly close again if only one of his drivers is doing the business. He remains confident, though, that the Mexican has what it takes to rediscover his best form.
He added: "What we see with Checo time and time again is that when you think he's on the ropes, he bounces back. He's a tough racer and he's a tough character and it hurts him more than anybody else. He'll be determined to come back and show everybody the form we know he's capable of and that he showed in the first four races of this year."
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