Damon Hill issued Christian Horner with a reminder that he “recommended” Sergio🐻 Perez to the Re💫d Bull F1 team.

Rꦕed Bull boss Horner had teased Sky Sports’ pundits about previous criౠticism of Perez.

The under🐠-pressure Perez has claimed three P2 finishes in four grands prix this year, and qualified for Sunday’s F1 Chinese Grand Prix in s⭕econd behind teammate Max Verstappen.

“You guys have a tendency to write h💞im off but he’s doing a gre🔜at job,” Horner told the Sky Sports studio.

“He came into the season with a♈ new frame of mind. He is relaxed and driving the car w🍰ell.

“He is not focusing ꦆon his teammate. It’s a different app💙roach.

“In the first five race💞s we have seen a strong perform꧒ance from him.

“His confidence is g💙rowing and hopefully he can convert that into an🔴other good result.”

1996 F1 champion Hill replied to Hornerꦍ: “Far from writing him off, I seem to remember recommending him to you, at one point!”

Perez 'responds to pressure in the best way'

H🌄orner addressed Perez’s upturn 🔥in form: “He is an important part of the team.

“It🦩’s about working collec✃tively. He has great engineering support around him. He feels comfortable.

“He knows th൩at he’s out of contract so he’s driving for his fඣuture.

“He responds to pressure in the best possible way. Some drivers respond to pressure, and othe🔥rs wilt.”

Horner said to Hill: “It reminds me of y🐓our 1995 and 199𒊎6 seasons.

“Over that winཧter, you certainly came back a diffe🐓rent driver in ‘96.

“It is similar with Checo. He has gone away, wintered well, changed a few 🗹things in his approach, and he is driving well.”

Perez narrowly avoided an unfortunate Q1 elimin🍃ation during Saturday’s qualifying for the grand prix.

Horner explained: “The tr♎ack was evolving quickly.

“With hindsight we should have run a new set of tyres but we were stacking th♔em up for later in qualifyinಞg.

🍰“You’d like to say it was perfect judgement but we got a🐟 little bit lucky to be within the cut.”

Red Bull’s🍰 domination looks set to continue in Shanghai on Sunday, after Verstappen won the sprint race on Saturday.

Horner was asked if his team will continue developing their 20🐓24 car or begin looking further ahead.

“You’ve got to keep your head down, keep pus♕hing 🥂forward,” he replied.

“It’s still early in this championship, t🍨here is a long way to go.

“As we head bac🎐k to E💮urope I suspect updates will arrive from other teams.

“Things can change. You can’t afford complacency.

“It hꦜas been a rea🍨lly good Saturday for us. The sprint race victory, pole position, and Checo on the front row as well.

“100 poles i𓆉n 15 years, anღd the first one was here 15 years ago.”