Suffering his first DNF since the 2022 Australian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen’s Red Bull was not the only RB20 facing problems in Melbourne on Sunday, as Sergio Pérez confessed he “could never find the right balance” throughout the meeting.
Red Bull had struggled to match Ferrari during FP2 on Friday, and even in qualifying the drivers complained about the balance. Nonetheless, Verstappen took pole. Perez was P3 before his 3-place drop for impeding Hülkenberg in Q1.
The 6-time Grand Prix winner admitted they never got on top of tyre management around Albert Park, although it turned out later that he had lost significant performance on his car due to a tear-off from Fernando Alonso going underneath his floor.
“I think we tried everything with the set-up. This track has cost us a lot, especially in the race, although we were struggling already, even on Friday, and we never got on top of the management of the tyres.”
The Mexican driver fought an uphill battle since qualifying, when the aforementioned impending incident earning him a three-place grid penalty, forcing him to start the race from sixth. Losing out to Russell at turn 3 on the opening lap did not help either.
On the medium stint, they got the balance wrong and hurt their rear tyres. It changed to the front for the second stint but was compromised by that tear-off issue.
“McLaren and Ferrari were superior to us. And starting behind them it was then very difficult to get ahead, plus I lost the position at the start with Russell,” he said.
“The first stint we made a lot of adjustments and degraded the rear tyres a lot while trying to protect the front ones. In the second stint, we degraded the front a lot… We were never able to find the rhythm, but in general, I think the whole weekend we were one step behind.
“In the end, it didn’t matter if we were slow or fast, the graining came and there was not much I could do, I could never find the right balance.”
Pérez was asked whether this weekend exposed the weaknesses of their package. His answer was straight, “Definitely”.
Red Bull struggled a bit last year at Las Vegas, a front-limited venue. Charles Leclerc was on course for a win before bad luck struck the Monegasque with a horribly timed Safety Car. He had passed Verstappen on track as the Dutchman struggled with graining and degradation on the mediums in the first stint.
Albert Park is another track that is harder on the front tyres and again Red Bull suffered with graining and degradation on Sunday. Pérez concedes this is a problem for Red Bull now.
“With these type of tracks — for example, Las Vegas, a front-limited track — I think we are going to start to suffer.”
After losing out to Russell at the start and finding himself behind both Mercedes and Astons at one point, he fought back and managed to finish the race P5.
He ultimately finished quite a way adrift of the Ferraris and McLarens.
The 34-year-old believes Ferrari and McLaren could finally show their true pace as they had not got the maximum out of their cars in the previous couple of races.
“In the race, in the end, I don’t think we would have finished ahead of the McLarens either, they were a step ahead of us.
“I think they were always there but couldn’t get to maximise the performance until now, so it will be very competitive in the next races,” he concluded.
