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Christian Horner claimed a torn piece from underneath the floor of Sergio Perez's car led to a drop in pace after the Red Bull driver overtook Fernando Alonso in the Australian GP. The Red Bull Racing CEO suggested that the Mexican was unaware of the loss in performance but was compromised throughout the race.
Sergio Perez finished the race in fifth place but was unable to close in on the front runners to clinch a podium finish. Horner claimed that the 34-year-old driver had the pace to surge through the field and match the front runners until the tear affected his run. The visor tear-off reportedly lodged itself in the underfloor, an area of the car responsible for generating the maximum amount of downforce.
Speaking to on-site media after the Australian GP, Horner described the problem with Sergio Perez's race:
“Checo's race, we went along on the first stint, his actual pace when he was coming through the field on that hard tire, as he closed in on Fernando was you know was strong in matching that of the of the leaders and then literally as he's passed Fernando, he's picked up a tear off underneath the floor and it's got lodged in an area that's caused significant load loss.”
“And so literally as he's then passed Fernando the car's not working as it should and so then you start to see degradation on the tire and again at the end of the second stem which has been unusual for our car. So yeah a lot of blessings obviously taken out of this weekend, frustrating that we didn't manage to match the 10 in a row. But incredible what you know what we've been able to achieve so far.”
Sergio Perez claimed Red Bull lacked pace all weekend
Sergio Perez claimed that Red Bull lacked pace against Ferrari and McLaren for the entire Australian GP weekend. He felt that the tarmac of the Albert Park circuit made managing grip levels a task. The Mexican driver stated that they were struggling with balance and the management of tyres.
Speaking about his race to Sky Sports F1, Sergio Perez said:
“We just didn't have the pace unfortunately. I think we struggled early on. We could see Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. We couldn't get the balance into the window. There's some work to do for the coming races. It was a very unique tarmac and throughout the weekend we were not able to manage the best possible grip level.”
He added:
“Just as a team we didn't have the pace throughout the weekend. We were struggling already from Friday and never got on top of the management of tyres. We just have to understand and improve. We already saw on a track like this, like Vegas, Ferrari were stronger than us and we couldn't look after our front tyres.”
Sergio Perez is currently third in the driver’s standings with 46 points. He has been eclipsed by Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, who leads him by one point. Perez is trailed by Carlos Sainz who is six points behind him. Red Bull Racing leads Ferrari in the constructors standings by four points.
