Sergio Perez has come under pressure for his position as one of Red Bull’s two drivers after a lacklustre campaign.

Red Bull’s lead in the constructors championship has slid and should their drivers falter in the final few races of the season they could find themselves behind McLaren and Ferrari.

Max Verstappen remains in the lead in the drivers championship with 331 points, but Perez has slipped further behind him to 144 points.

“We desperately need answers,” Horner told Autosport on the driver situation.

“I think when you look at our opponents, Ferrari will be strong next year, with [Lewis] Hamilton and [Charles] Leclerc. Plus McLaren with [Lando] Norris and [Oscar] Piastri is a strong line-up.

“We need to make sure that with both of our drivers, that there’s not a big gap between them because you can’t afford to have that.”

Liam Lawson has stepped up as Daniel Ricciardo’s replacement at RB, with a clear idea to assess his potential to step up to Red Bull in 2025.

Oliver Bearman and Franco Colapinto have already impressed for other teams, which could encourage Red Bull to take a similar chance.

Ricciardo was originally put in RB Formula One Team to challenge Yuki Tsunoda and should he have been successful, team boss Helmut Marko hinted previously he could have returned to Horner’s team.

“Daniel was put in the car and if he would have been significantly faster than Yuki there was an idea to bring him back to Red Bull Racing,” Marko told ESPN in August.

“But he also had this up and down. So, so far, he didn’t fulfil the criteria to be a Red Bull Racing driver.”