Instead of cutting Sergio Perez after his poor performances, Red Bull wants to help the Mexican regain confidence in the car
Red Bull is looking for ways to make Sergio Perez feel more comfortable in the car again. The Mexican is having great difficulties with the RB20 in the current 2024 Formula 1 season and cannot keep up with team-mate Max Verstappen in any way.
Perez has only managed to score 28 points since Imola and was therefore on the verge of being replaced, as Red Bull is in danger of losing out to the competition in the battle for the constructors’ championship because McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari are all scoring well with two drivers each.
While all the other drivers from the top four teams have at least two podium finishes in the same period, Perez has not finished higher than seventh since Imola. Despite this, Red Bull is sticking with him and wants to give him back the confidence in the car that he currently lacks with the difficult-to-drive RB20.
“What we want is the fastest car, but in a way that can be used by the drivers,” he said,
“If we make the car so fast that Checo can use it, it means that both drivers can get the maximum out of the car,” he says. Because even if Perez and Verstappen have different needs or preferences, the demands on the car are very similar.
“Basically, it’s the same. Sure, there may be differences in driving style, but we won’t use the development of the car for that. We will use the set-up of the car,” says Wache.
Barely representative conclusions in the simulator
According to him, Red Bull sees “some tendencies” as to why Perez has greater difficulties with the car compared to Verstappen, “but it’s very difficult to point them out because last year he also struggled at times, so it’s difficult for us to find them. “
“The main problem we have is that we try to reproduce the car and all these things in simulations, but that doesn’t mean it simulates exactly what the car does in all conditions,” he explains.
“The interaction with the tires is very difficult to reproduce, even if we do our best. Improving these areas is an important part of our process,” says Wache.
Why upgrades are not so easy
In the current era of ground effect cars, the solution goes far beyond adding downforce. Because that is not enough to keep the car in balance at high and low speeds.
According to Wache, under these regulations there is a greater risk that performance improvements will make the car more difficult to balance after an upgrade and therefore more difficult to drive. And that seems to be a problem for Perez in particular, whose gap to the three-time world champion goes beyond the usual speed deficit
“That’s simply a risk with this type of regulation,” says the technical director. “We’ve also seen this with some other teams, Mercedes, for example, have said that balance has been a big problem for them in recent years. McLaren also had the problem at the start of this season.
“Balance with these cars is quite difficult to achieve because if you create downforce in a certain area of the car that you can’t mechanically make up for, then it’s difficult to use that gain,” he explains.
However, Red Bull must ensure that Perez gets back on track, as McLaren are currently “only” 42 points behind the Bulls (see current championship standings). In the past three races alone, McLaren have made up 45 points on Red Bull – with ten races still to go.
