Red Bull Racing is enjoying its third win of the season, the one that arrived yesterday at the Miami Grand Prix signed by Max Verstappen in front of the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jr. Yet the result of the Milton Keynes team could have been more rounded if Sergio Perez he had not encountered an engine problem which prevented him from attacking Sainz and entering the podium area.
Once the Safety Car returned, Perez found himself on the track with a set of new Medium tires against the first three who, on the other hand, had Hard compounds and now had several laps on his shoulders. The engine failure caused by a cylinder sensor did not allow the Mexican to exploit the potential of his car, nor the advantage of tires.
This led him to close in fourth position, behind team mate Verstappen and the Ferraris. The sensor failure turned out to be a real regret for Red Bull, because the former Racing Point driver would have had great opportunities to enter the podium area and even to give the team a sensational double after the one obtained two weeks ago at Imola.
Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull, estimated that the failure on Perez’s power unit can be quantified in about half a second per lap. A huge amount, especially considering how close Red Bull and Ferrari are all in all in terms of performance in this first part of the season.
“We had a problem with Checo’s engine. A cylinder sensor failure. He really wasted a lot of time when the problem happened. He lost about 20 kW of power. For this reason, despite having a tire advantage. against Sainz at the restart, he was unable to catch up on the leaders “.
Carlos Sainz, Ferrari F1-75, Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
“HRC did a good job and allowed Checo to continue the race, finishing it. I think he could have taken second place without the problem, because the problem took away half a second from the performance lap. He would have quickly returned to the top positions. “.
Horner also admitted that Perez came very close to retiring precisely because of the malfunctioning cylinder sensor. HRC, however, managed to find a temporary solution in the race, allowing the rider to continue and finish the race, bringing home important points for the fight in the Constructors’ Championship.
“Checo was really very close to retirement. We had to try to get around the sensor problem. It’s something we will have to work closely with HRC to try and understand the steps to take to make sure that things don’t happen.” more in the future “.
“I don’t think the RB18s are particularly fragile. I think so far they have slowed us down to some annoying things that we would have seen in pre-season testing and that instead occurred at the start of the season. So it was frustrating. But we are working very closely with HRC. They are giving us great support. So I think we can solve our problems. “
Finally, Horner also talked about the work done by the team in preparing the RB18s. What made the difference in the race was the dedicated set-up – with a preference for top speeds on the straights – which on a track like Miami were the key to the victory achieved by Max Verstappen.
“I think the set up we chose made a difference in the race. We have enough speed on the straights to defend and attack. So we decided to go for a set-up that allowed us to do all this and I think it was the correct choice in this respect. weekend “, concluded the Red Bull manager.
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