“It was a nightmare of a race”: Sergio Perez looks back on his Spanish GP weekend

Sergio Perez said the Spanish GP was a difficult race for him in terms of car performance and his starting position on the grid. Speaking to onsite media after the race, the Red Bull Racing driver complained about suffering from balance issues throughout the race weekend.

Qualifying in eighth place, Perez was far away from his teammate Max Verstappen, who started second on the grid. Due to a three-place grid penalty received after the Canadian GP, the Mexican had to start in 11th position on the grid. Dropping as far back as 15th during the race, the he was struggling to manage his tires. An alternate strategy towards the end helped him surge back into the points but he could not go further up the grid than eighth position.

Describing his race, Sergio Perez claimed that the first stint race was compromised due to the starting position and tire performance. He complained that the car was sliding in dirty air when he was stuck behind other cars, which further impacted his ability to overtake. The 34 year old had a three stop strategy, where he used three sets of soft tires, a set of medium tires. His late surge up the grid was on a used set of soft tires.

Asked if he had maximised his performance to the best of his abilities in the race, Sergio Perez said:

“I think yeah with the penalty we had, where we started, it was so difficult to pass. On that first stint, my race was over. I was stuck behind Nico and I was just sliding around really badly and it was a nightmare of a race. So yeah very difficult race overall. In the end we managed to switch to the three stop and we managed to come back into Gasly and secure the the eighth. But it was quite hard. I think basically everything was compromised on that first stint.”

Asked if there were any learnings in Spain in terms of car behaviour, he replied:

“Yes, I think I understood a lot of things that happened over the weekend. During the race the balance was quite off, on that yeah on the on the soft. So quite linked to the qualifying issues we had. So yeah I think we can come back strong.”

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Sergio Perez claims aggressive setup changes did not work at the Spanish GP

Sergio Perez said that some of the setup changes his team made in Spain did not deliver as expected and needed to be reviewed. Explaining his struggles with the RB20, the Mexican reckoned that the front end limitations resulted in balance issues in the low and medium speed sections of the circuit.

Given Red Bull’s overall struggles during qualifying, the 34-year-old was unable to optimise the car setup to his liking. He claimed that the team had tested setups throughout the weekend.

Explaining the balance issues with the car during the race, Sergio Perez said:

“I was quite front limited just, I couldn't get the rotation and I couldn’t get the power down. It's the problem I have at the moment is that I cannot balance a car through all the speeds.

"I'm struggling quite a bit in the medium to low speed, to be able to have the stability that I need with the rotation and that's something that I'm working quite hard with the team. We did some aggressive changes for the weekend which I don't think they worked, so we will review those," he added.

Asked if he needed a clean weekend to get back on to track, the Red Bull Racing driver replied:

“Yes, I think a weekend was very dirty in terms of we basically explore more than testing probably the car. You know from FP1 to FP2 I think we've never swung around on set up or so many things. So I think we were a bit desperate, I'll say to try and find the balance so we need to review all of that. But I see the light out of the tunnel.”

Asked if there was any point in the race where he was comfortable with the balance, Sergio Perez said:

"I think on the medium the balance felt a lot more together but not so much on soft.”

Sergio Perez has had a streak of performances outside the top five and the top ten of the race. Monaco GP onwards, he has struggled to finish in the points and was knocked out consistently from Q1 for three weekends in a row. Despite making a return to Q3 in Spain, the eight place finish was only enough to help him gather four points.

Currently at fifth place in the drivers standings, the Mexican driver has scored a 111 points in 10 races, whereas his teammate is currently at the top with 219 points to his name. Next up for Perez is the Austrian GP in Spielberg, where he finished third in 2023.