Horner: Barcelona Upgrade Might Have Been Main Problem All Along, Not Perez
F1
According to a recent statement by Christian Horner, Red Bull might have been running the wrong car since Barcelona—eight races before Baku.
Although Red Bull's final result after the 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix doesn't reflect it, Red Bull introduced an upgraded floor in Baku that significantly helped Sergio Perez.
The Mexican driver was on pace with Max Verstappen and all the remaining drivers from the top 4 teams throughout the whole weekend.
Christian Horner believed Perez might have won the Grand Prix if Lando Norris had not slowed him down on lap 16 to help his teammate Oscar Piastri.
Nevertheless, the 34-year-old driver could still have finished on the podium. However, he collided with Carlos Sainz on the penultimate lap, which put him out of the race and resulted in zero points.
While Red Bull lost its lead in the Constructors' Championship after the race, there was still a silver lining: It seemed the Austrian team might have fixed the problem which was slowing down one of its drivers. As reported by AMUS, Horner said after the race:
"We traced the development history back and it turned out that the first mistake we made was with an underbody upgrade in 2023 in Barcelona."
"That was also the Grand Prix from which Checo started having problems with the car. We just didn't take it so seriously because Max kept winning."
The Grand Prix in Barcelona took place eight race weekends before the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, and Sergio Perez hasn't finished better than P5 for 11 races already, so in terms of results, it seemed like he might have been struggling for a bit longer.
Red Bull's Helmut Marko also suggested Red Bull took a wrong turn at one point, and his estimation directly coincides with Perez's slump in performance. As per AMUS, he said, "We took a really wrong turn this year in Imola (11 races before Azerbaijan Grand Prix)."
Was Perez being wrongly accused of not being good enough this whole time? Was Red Bull's upgrade the main problem? The Mexican driver seems to agree.
According to a report by ESPN, the Red Bull Racing F1 driver said the upgrade made it worse for him, and the only reason the problems didn't seem to bother Max Verstappen as much was their difference in driving style.
"It wasn't so obvious the issue with [Max's] driving style, where with my driving style it all became a lot more apparent probably since race number three of the season."
"The issues I was having they just got worse and worse and now Max seems to be finding similar issues."
"[Resolving the issue] is something that will help both drivers. It will help me even more, you know, because of the driving style I have."
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