Sergio Perez is still battling to rediscover his early season form and get back on the same level as his Red Bull team mate Max Verstappen, and believes that balance issues are a the heart of it.
After missing the first cut in qualifying in both Monaco and Montreal, Perez did make it through to the final run in Barcelona although a three place grid penalty dropped him to 11th on the grid for the race.
He made little progress in the race, getting stuck behind Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas in the opening laps and ending up crossing the line in eighth place almost a full minute behind Verstappen.
“The main problem was the starting position,” Perez lamented after the race. “With the penalty we had, where we started, it was so difficult to pass on that first stint and then my race was over.
“I was stuck behind Nico and I was just sliding around really badly,” he explained. “It was a nightmare of a race. It was very difficult race overall.”
Perez is focused on curing his pace in single lap qualifying runs moving forward. “I think I have understood a lot of things that happened over the weekend during the race.
“The balance was quite off on the softs, [which is] linked to the qualifying issues we had, so we can come back strong,” he said. “I was quite front-limited. I couldn’t get the rotation, couldn’t get the power down.
“The problem I have at the moment is that I can’t balance the car for all the speeds,” he revealed. “I am struggling quite a bit in the medium to low speed to be able to have the stability I need with the rotation.
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“That is something I am working quite hard with the team,” he added. “We did some aggressive changes for the weekend [in Spain], which I don’t think worked, so we will review those.
“We have never swung around so many things on set-up,” he said, characterising last weekend as “dirty”. “We basically explored – more than testing, probably – the car from FP1 to FP2. We were a bit desperate to try and find a balance.”
Perez has dropped from P2 in the drivers championship after Miami to just fifth after Barcelona and is already over a hundred points behind Verstappen. He also trails Lando Norris, Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
But Perez still has high hopes of bouncing back this weekend at the team’s home track, the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg which hosts the Austrian Grand Prix.
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“This weekend in Austria we have everything in place to have a cleaner weekend,” he said. The team and I know where we must improve and make changes and we will implement them. It’s then my job to get the most out of the car.
“We’ll have limited running due to the Sprint weekend, so I need to make the most of first practice and attack qualifying and the Sprint from the start. We want and need a complete weekend.
“Austria is always a great race, it’s Red Bull’s home and that makes for a brilliant atmosphere, I’m looking forward to it.”
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Red Bull Racing, Sergio Perez
Perez prioritising ‘balancing the car for all speeds’ F1i.com.
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