The F1 Brazil GP was one of the most eventful races we have had in a while. The wet Interlagos race consisted of an aborted start, one red flag, and even the first black flag in 17 years. Max Verstappen won from P17. For Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, his day was nothing short of disappointment.
Following an early exit from qualifying earlier in the day where the Mexican was knocked out in Q2 because of Lance Stroll crashing, the race was no better.
When reflecting on the race where he finished P11, Pérez had repeatedly stated that it was “a total disaster”.
This was partly due to the tyre strategy he was on. He switched to wets just before the Safety Car, and ultimately a red flag.
He had good battles with Liam Lawson and Lewis Hamilton after that, but the 34-year-old missed out on any points.
A terrible launch at the start and spin later on the first lap left him at the back.
“Yeah, it was a disaster.
“We didn’t know at the time that we could change the tyres until the very last minute, and there was no time to change them. And we started the race with very cold tyres.
“And then as there was no one ahead of me, I started and I went into a whole [lot] of water. So it was a total disaster at the start.
“We were making progress, and then unfortunately we pitted at the red flag.
“And then at the restart, the visibility was zero, but we were making some progress.
“We came all the way to Liam, and then we ended up touching a bit in turn one, and then I went straight into turn four, losing the position to Lewis.
“It was a total disaster, really nothing worked.”
The 34-year-old even joked about his tendency to find Lawson during a race, saying, “Yeah, we kept finding each other.”
This isn’t the first time the two had an on-track battle since the young New Zealander had stepped up to replace Daniel Riccardo after the Singapore Grand Prix, linking back to the incident on track during the Mexican Grand Prix a week earlier.
“I was obviously locked up. I think it was a much fairer fight. We touched wheels, which is fine […] at the edge.”
However, Pérez mentioned that there were also many positives for the team this weekend. This includes Max Verstappen’s victory, the first Red Bull win in 10 races, and an overall improvement in the pace of the cars.
The Mexican worked his way through to P8 in the Sprint as both RB20s showed good race pace and better tyre deg compared to recent times.
“I think there are some positives from the weekend.
“Obviously, the victory of Max is very important for the team. Momentum-wise, I think it’s been a very strong weekend in terms of pace.
“So yeah, plenty of positives, but obviously the result is very disappointing.”
A chassis change was made to his car ahead of the weekend, and the 6-time race winner was happy with it.
“Yeah, I think it was, in a way, one of the strongest weekends in terms of pace. You know, we put the car on, and straightaway we were very competitive in FP1.
“So yeah, I think it’s been a much more competitive weekend. So hopefully the momentum gets back to us.”
