Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says a visor tear-off lodged in the floor area of Sergio Perez’s RB20 impacted the aerodynamic performance of the Mexican’s car during the Australian GP.
Perez had qualified third for Sunday’s race but was demoted to sixth on the grid due to a three-place penalty for impeding.
The Red Bull driver eventually concluded his day fifth in the pecking order, outpaced by both Ferraris but also by the McLaren’s of Lando Norri and Oscar Piastri.
Perez admitted to having struggled early on but reckoned that his car was no march for his direct rivals.
While this was true, unbeknownst to the Mexican, his RB20 had suffered a significant loss of downforce during the race when to a tear-off likely discarded by Fernando Alonso found its way into his car’s floor.
"We went long on the first stint," Horner explained. "And his actual pace when he was coming through the field on the hard tyre as he closed in on Fernando was strong, and matching that of the leaders.
"And then literally as he's passed Fernando, he's picked up a tear-off underneath the floor and it's got lodged in an area that's caused significant load loss.
"So as he's then passed Fernando, the car's not working as it should. And so then you start to see degradation on the tyre, and again at the end of the second stint, which has been unusual for our cars."
Horner estimated the aero loss to have been “in excess of 20 points”.
“So it's a significant amount,” he added. “It just shows how sensitive these things are."
After the race, Perez expressed his belief that Ferrari would have had the upper hand over Red Bull, even without Max Verstappen’s early retirement.
Horner was unsure whether Perez could have given the Scuderia’s drivers a run for their money without his machine’s aero deficit.
"Difficult to say," he said. "I mean for sure he's been compromised when he's picked up the issue with the floor. I think they were maybe just a bit, maybe a bit too quick today, but you never know."
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