2 weeks Ago By Jamie Woodhouse
After a bitterly disappointing Q1 exit at his home race, Sergio Perez said there is a braking issue in the Red Bull data which they are struggling to fix. The pressure has been mounting on Perez once more to secure his future at Red Bull, with Liam Lawson’s impressive return with VCARB in Austin only heightening the speculation that he could be Red Bull-bound for F1 2025. But, major opportunity knocked for Perez at his home race, the Mexican Grand Prix.
Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock However, Perez has been left with a mountain to climb after he failed to make it past the first segment of qualifying. “I just put too much energy into the tyres, and that makes it very, very tricky for me to stop the car,” Perez admitted to the media, including PlanetF1.com, after an early exit from his RB20.
However, Perez claims this is not a driver fault, but rather a car issue, and one which Red Bull have not yet found a fix for. Asked if his troubles to stop the RB20 was a new issue for Mexican GP qualifying, Perez replied: “No, it’s been there the last three races where I cannot stop the car and having to modulate quite a lot my braking. “And that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment.
“It’s mainly on a straight line the issue that we are facing. On a straight line, I cannot stop the car. I just slide too much and given that it’s all surface sensitivity here, it makes it a lot harder.
“It’s obviously very disappointing. If there’s a grand prix that I want to do really well, it’s this one. “And unfortunately, it’s been really difficult and tricky this event.
” 👉 F1 2025 driver line-up: Who is already confirmed for the 2025 grid? 👉 F1 driver contracts: What is the contract status of every driver on the 2024 grid? With Red Bull needing crucial points in their Constructors’ Championship push, Perez will need to pull off plenty of overtakes on Sunday, but he does not exactly rate his chances of making progress highly. “It’s going to be hard, because it’s also present there in the long run,” said Perez in a further reference to this RB20 issue, “so I will try everything. “I will try and see what we are able to do with the team and see what solutions we are able to find.
” At the last round in Austin, Lewis Hamilton called for a pit-lane start after his Q1 exit, as that would come with the caveat of being able to make changes to the car. That did not come to fruition, but does Perez see this as an option for himself as he prepares to start from P18 only? “We will discuss all the options,” he replied. “The problem is that we’re also very tight on parts that we have available.
“We don’t have the spec of floor that we would like to go on to. “I don’t know. We will discuss it for sure with the team.
” Perez’s team-mate, Drivers’ Championship leader Max Verstappen, will launch from the front row alongside polesitter Carlos Sainz. Read next – Mexican GP: Carlos Sainz sets stunning lap to take pole in Mexico.
