F1 | Red Bull: Perez slowed down by a hole in the side

Undoubtedly it wasn’t the weekend Sergio Perez was hoping for, stingy with satisfaction and with problems that undermined his result throughout the weekend. Already in the qualifying for the sprint some elements did not work as hoped, in particular in qualifying, when Red Bull sent him on track between the two Alpines very late, forcing him to complete the only attempt in SQ3 without being able to really show his his potential.

A potential that, in reality, was seen in a qualifying session on Saturday where he didn’t shine, scoring a fourth row start which, clearly, immediately put him in a position where he had to take risks in duels with his opponents.

From this point of view, there was no shortage of episodes on the first lap, starting from turn one, where he took advantage of an important free space left by Charles Leclerc at the entrance to attempt to overtake the Monegasque, who was extremely cautious when braking. An episode which then meant that the Cavallino driver himself found himself between two drivers, coming into contact with Oscar Piastri who, at the same moment, had tried to attack from the outside.

The one with Leclerc, however, was not the only accident on the first lap for the McLaren driver. Again during the opening lap of the Grand Prix, in fact, in an attempt to overtake Perez on the outside of turn 4, the Australian came into contact with the Red Bull Mexican who, in the meantime, was trying to defend his position.

Trying to stay on the track so as not to end up on the outside gravel, his right front tire touched the side of the rider from the Milton Keynes team, generating a hole in the side that vaguely resembles the same damage suffered last year by Max Verstappen in Baku in a duel with George Russell in the sprint race. The fortunate aspect is that, as on that occasion, also in this case the internal radiator under the bonnet was not touched, remaining intact, but the side clearly suffered damage.

The team immediately felt a noticeable loss of load, as well as an increase in drag, as the airflow flowing along the side found turbulence generated in that area. At the time, for similar damage, Red Bull had estimated a loss of four tenths for Verstappen’s episode.

“Yes, there was a lot of damage on the side. I came into contact with Piastri in turn 4 and it was an unfortunate episode, because in reality we had started well. But there was nothing we could do about it afterwards, the car was unbalanced,” commented Perez after the race.

Sergio Perez, the damage on his Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images

“Furthermore, I also made a mistake at the entrance to the pitlane with the speed limiter. The race was a disaster, it started very well, but I think that not having a great pace and sliding, there was no hope of fighting with the leaders,” added the Mexican.

The Guadalajara driver, in fact, had to struggle throughout the race from a balance point of view, suffering a lot of understeer due to an overheated front. For this reason, gradually even in the pit stops the team tried to rebalance the car by modifying the wing settings, but never having a perfect balance, the tires began to slide, reducing confidence and performance in the traction phase.

The lack of pace, however evident when compared to the leaders, then weighed on a second theme, namely that of strategies. Thinking that they could probably have an easy time with the Haas, Red Bull set the race plan effectively following the choices of the leaders, with a “postponed” pit stop compared to many teams in the midfield. As in a chain reaction, the Haas were among the first to stop to respond to a possible undercut by Daniel Ricciardo with the Racing Bulls and this meant that the race tactics were staggered. After the first stop, Perez actually took little time to overtake the two American cars, less than five laps, who in the meantime had ended up in front of him having actually anticipated the pit stop.

In the twelve laps that Perez was able to run in clear air before the two Haas cars came in for their second pit stops, the Mexican was able to put around 10 seconds ahead of Hulkenberg. At that point the paths split again: the two Haas cars clearly anticipated their second pit stop again to fit another set of hard tyres with which to complete the remaining 30 laps and get to the checkered flag. On the other hand, Red Bull decided to extend the second stint as much as possible, going as far as to complete 30 laps on the hard.

Nico Hulkenberg, Haas VF-24, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB20

Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images

Potentially, Red Bull could have also brought forward the second stop to fit another set of hard tires with which to get to the end, exiting ahead of the two Haas standard bearers, but the choice instead fell on lengthening the central stint and then fitting a medium used for the final, a compound that had proven to be more competitive. Clearly, what made Perez slip behind the two VF-24s, which this time, despite the compound gap, resisted longer. In particular, Hulkenberg was the author of a strenuous defense until the last lap, taking home a fundamental sixth place for the team.

“It was a good fight. I think Nico made a mistake in the last corner. I couldn’t catch him. I couldn’t get traction coming out of the third corner. So yeah, it was quite tough towards the end of the race. I tried, but I couldn’t get traction,” the Mexican rider added, pointing out the continuous sliding of the rear.

“With the contact in Turn 1 he lost quite a bit of downforce, he had understeer for the whole race. We knew there was nothing we could do, we said to ourselves: ‘Try to do the best you can with what you have now’, and that’s what happened in these circumstances,” added Helmut Marko, speaking about Perez’s race.