"We just didn't have the pace": Sergio Perez concedes his and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull could not have won the F1 Australian GP

Sergio Perez feels Red Bull did not have the pace to win the 2024 Australian GP, stating that their car lacked balance as they struggled all weekend long in Melbourne.

After teammate Max Verstappen retired due to his right rear tire giving away, Perez managed no more than a fifth-place finish in the race. He claimed that they struggled with grip throughout the weekend and were not as strong as Ferrari and McLaren.

According to their long-run simulations from FP2, Red Bull had unrepresentative timings and had several issues compared to their scarlet red and papaya orange counterparts, who were able to log a decent number of laps. The 34-year-old feels their performance was very similar to Las Vegas last year where Ferrari was stronger than Red Bull.

Charles Leclerc was sandwiched in P2 between the two RBR drivers in Las Vegas while Carlos Sainz finished P6, largely due to the incident involving a loose drain cover.

Debriefing his race performance in Melbourne, Sergio Perez said, via Sky Sports:

“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.

“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."

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Red Bull boss reckons Sergio Perez had damage on his car

Christian Horner claims Sergio Perez was unaware that he had damage on the floor of his car after he passed Fernando Alonso. The Red Bull Racing CEO believes that their cars have a unique flaw where the tires start wearing out towards the end of the stint, making them lack pace.

Commenting on the performance of the Mexican driver, Horner said, via the aforementioned source:

"He's probably not aware from it but he picked up some damage and lost a significant amount of downforce from the floor of the car when he passed Fernando. As soon as you get that, your tyre deg gets worse.

"We were just not good at the end of the stints, which is an unusual trait for our cars. We need to understand that. I have to congratulate Carlos Sainz today after going through surgery. What a great performance by him and his Ferrari team today."

Red Bull Racing are currently leading the points table with a total of 97 points but are only four points ahead of Ferrari. Max Verstappen’s lead has been reduced to four points as Charles Leclerc trails him in second place.

Sergio Perez is five points behind his Dutch teammate, making it an exciting year ahead, with 21 races still left on the calendar.