Red Bull is currently focused on enhancing Perez’s comfort in the RB20 vehicle. The team has expressed its intention to ensure that both drivers can fully utilize the potential of their 2024 Formula 1 car. This effort is aimed at helping Sergio Perez overcome his recent struggles. Despite starting the season strongly with four podium finishes in five races, Perez has faced a decline in performance, earning only 28 points in the past eight rounds. This downturn coincides with other teams catching up to Red Bull and Max Verstappen’s individual achievements no longer being sufficient to maintain their advantage. However, instead of replacing Perez, Red Bull has decided to give him another chance.
Verstappen, who currently holds a significant 78-point lead, has openly admitted that he has been pushing the car to its limits in recent months to extract more speed. Red Bull’s Technical Director, Pierre Wache, has revealed that the team’s future upgrades will prioritize enhancing the car’s performance to benefit both Perez and Verstappen. When asked if Perez encounters more difficulties when the car becomes more challenging to drive, Wache acknowledged that this could be a contributing factor. The team’s primary goal is to have the fastest car that can be effectively utilized by both drivers. By making the car faster in a way that Perez can handle, it ensures that both drivers can maximize their performance. Although they may have different driving styles, the overall requirements for the car remain similar. The team will focus on adjusting the car’s setup rather than its development to accommodate these differences.
Wache disclosed that Red Bull has made efforts to observe “patterns” to analyze Perez’s difficulties, but replicating such characteristics on the simulator has presented a challenge.”We attempt to identify certain trends, but it is exceedingly arduous to pinpoint them because he also encountered struggles last year on occasion, thus it becomes challenging for us to uncover,” Wache stated.
“The primary issue we encounter is that we strive to simulate the vehicle and all its components, yet it does not guarantee an exact replication of the car’s behavior in all circumstances.”The interaction with the tires proves to be exceptionally challenging to replicate, despite our utmost efforts. Enhancing these aspects constitutes a crucial component of our procedure.”
The Frenchman has conceded that complications with optimizing the car’s equilibrium under the current ground effect regulations have impeded Perez more than his teammate.”That is an inherent risk associated with these types of regulations,” he further commented. “We have observed similar challenges with other teams as well.
“For instance, Mercedes has acknowledged that balance posed a significant obstacle for them in previous years. Even McLaren encountered it at the onset of this season.”Attaining the appropriate balance with these cars is rather intricate because if you generate downforce in a specific area of the vehicle that cannot be mechanically rebalanced, utilizing that advantage becomes problematic.”
Photo from Sergio Perez Instagram
