“The pace is back”: Sergio Perez remains positive despite Carlos Sainz incident in Azerbaijan

Sergio Perez remains optimistic about the positives from the 2024 Azerbaijan GP weekend, despite his retirement following a clash with Carlos Sainz. Speaking to the media after the race, the Red Bull Racing driver emphasized that their car upgrades had proven effective, and the pace was encouraging.

Before the incident with Sainz, Perez was running within a second of race leader Oscar Piastri and just half a second behind Charles Leclerc by just half a second. Without the collision, a podium finish seemed inevitable, and a race victory was a realistic possibility.

Red Bull had brought a revised front wing and updated floor to the Azerbaijan race weekend to address their struggles with street circuits and medium-speed corners. Perez believes that despite the retirement, the car’s pace proved that the upgrades had delivered. He noted that in addition to the clash, Lando Norris covering for Piastri made it difficult to maximize his undercut strategy. After losing track position to the Australian, the Mexican driver explained that the dirty air from the cars ahead and low grip levels hindered his race, despite having the pace to fight for victory.

When asked how frustrating it was to have a strong result slip away on one of his better weekends of the season, Perez said,

“Yeah, it’s a massive frustration, it makes me feel super sad for my team, you know, McLaren overtook us in the championship. But the positive thing is that the pace is back. I think with the upgrades, we’re back in contention, and that’s something we can be happy with.”

When asked if Norris holding him back thwarted his chances of getting ahead of Piastri, he said,

“Yeah, I think I lost two, two and a half seconds with Lando holding me back, and that really prevented me from doing the undercut on Piastri.”

Asked if he had the pace to pull out a gap had he gotten ahead, the Mexican said,

"Yeah, I think being in the dirty air with the low grip was not ideal. So I think I would have had a much better race—I mean, we had the pace for the win today.”

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Sergio Perez believes that Red Bull Racing has made progress and expects to be competitive at the upcoming Singapore GP

Sergio Perez believes the team has made significant improvements to the car's performance, although he noted that Max Verstappen's difficulties in Azerbaijan underscored the varying responses of the car to different setup configurations. The 34-year-old driver acknowledged the need for further development behind the scenes but remains confident in their prospects for the Singapore Grand Prix.

When asked if the car would perform better at a track like Singapore, Perez said,

“Yeah, I think in terms of pace, yes, it’s been a strong one. I do expect Singapore as well. Probably the ride can be a little bit trickier there, but it should be a good weekend.”

Perez commented on the promising upgrades and performance in Azerbaijan, saying,

"Yeah, that’s definitely encouragement, but I’m aware that there’s still a lot of work to do. Because when you see with Max how much he struggled on the weekend, I think he probably was a touch or two out of the setup, and then it’s a huge difference in terms of the weekend. So it’s showing that the car is too sensitive, so we got some work to do. I think we’ve made a good step, but we need another two steps like this.”

Red Bull Racing has been surpassed by McLaren in the Constructors' Championship. While it was expected that McLaren would eventually overtake them, the gap could have been narrower if Perez had completed the race. Red Bull now trails McLaren by 20 points and holds a 31-point lead over Ferrari. Chief Engineer Paul Monaghan confirmed that the team will introduce additional upgrades to the car for the Singapore Grand Prix, a circuit that has presented challenges for Red Bull since the 2022 season.