Horner: "Perez is in this Championship as much as Verstappen is"

Christian Horner acknowledges that Sergio Perez is "in the Championship" as much as Max Verstappen during the 2022 Formula 1 season. After winning the Monaco Grand Prix, Sergio Perez is within 15 points of the World Championship leader. 

Great drive from Perez

Perez out-qualified his teammate in Monaco and kept that advantage during the wet weather at the start of the race. Perez then jumped the Ferrari drivers with an overcut and kept his nerve at the end of the race to hold on despite failing tyres. His team boss only had praise. 

"An amazing day for Checo, he's been on it all weekend. His pace on the in-lap and the out lap from the wet to the inter, the teamwork, the double stop, both drivers picking off a Ferrari was fantastic. He's doing a great job, look at his performances so far. Jeddah, he had an amazing pole, time delta to him and Max has been closer this year," Horner told Sky Sports.

Perez, who seemingly let slip that he has signed a contract, is now 15 points away from Verstappen in the Championship. Last weekend, the team ordered Verstappen and Perez to swap around which caused the Mexican to be frustrated. All this frustration has now gone. 

"He is in this championship as much as Max is, the gap between them is 15 points or so which is nothing. There's a long way to go. Ferrari have a very fast car, they had a better car than us on this circuit this weekend. We managed to beat them here, it won't be easy at the coming races," Horner added.