“Nothing really worked” – Sergio Perez on not being able to quickly adapt to Honda power unit

Sergio Perez has revealed that getting up to speed with the Honda power unit and not being able to exploit its full potential from early in the season was one of the reasons for his struggles at the Milton Keynes team.

In an interview with RacingNews365, the Red Bull driver said:

"Even as a driver, you underestimate these things until you live them, and experience them.”

"But driving a different power unit, it's a completely different task.”

"Like driving a completely different philosophy of car with the high rake versus lower rake... it's a completely different task and the way you approach things are just extremely different.”

"You have to learn new techniques. Basically, what I used to do, nothing really worked."

After driving with the Mercedes power unit through much of his F1 career, Sergio Perez had to quickly get up to speed with the Honda power unit for the 2021 season after switching to Red Bull from Racing Point.

In addition to that, the Mexican driver also had to adapt his driving style to suit to a car that was designed around a completely different aero philosophy than what he was previously used to.

The Red Bull RB16B, therefore, proved difficult for Sergio Perez to master as he struggled to match teammate Verstappen during the initial part of the season. However, he continued to improve race by race and oftentimes displayed impressive race pace and solid defensive driving.

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Sergio Perez says that he wasn’t worried about being replaced at Red Bull for 2022

Sergio Perez has revealed that he wasn’t worried about being replaced with another driver for the 2022 season and has said that he was assured of the seat by his team bosses early on in 2021.

Speaking to RaceFans, the veteran F1 driver said:

“I mean, at this stage of my career, it’s hard to get worried about not getting a seat. I think we matched really well, really quickly within the Red Bull family."

“Very early on, Helmut and Christian told me to not look anywhere else because they wanted to carry on with me.”

Sergio Perez was signed by Red Bull at the end of the 2020 season after he lost his seat at Racing Point (now Aston Martin) to four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel.

While Perez hasn’t been able to match Max Verstappen in terms of pure performances, he was oftentimes been instrumental in the latter’s championship battle. However, there have been reports suggesting that Red Bull might be considering replacing the Mexican for the 2023 season with their Alpha Tauri driver Pierre Gasly.

Gasly previously drove for Red Bull in 2019 but lost his seat mid-way through the season after some disastrous performances. But since his return to Toro Rosso/Alpha Tauri, the Frenchman has been one of the stand-out performers on the grid.