Red Bull team boss Christian Horner says Sergio Perez’s Austrian Grand Prix turned into a frustrating battle against his own car after a contact on the opening lap of the race put a “big hole” in the sidepod of his RB20.
While a glance at the results and at Perez’s seventh-place finish might suggest a simple off-day for the Mexican, Horner revealed that the damage resulted in a significant loss of straight-line speed.
Perez was locked in a fight for P6 with Haas' Nico Hulkenberg in the closing laps of the race but was ultimately unable to secure the position due to his car’s deficiency.
“Checo, I mean, again, it was a tricky race for him,” Horner told the media after the race. “He had quite a significant contact on the first lap.
“He had quite a big hole in the sidepod and then the loss of straight-line speed that that gives you, it’s a bit like an air brake.
“So that’s why he was struggling on straight-line speed. So, difficult to judge Checo’s race due to the damage that he had.”
The exact amount of lap time lost by Perez due to the RB20’s damage was unclear, but Horner reckoned that it was “significant”.
“I don’t have the exact numbers,” commented the Briton. “All I know is he had lost a big hole, and it was being reported on the data that there was a significant loss because of it.”
Perez, whose race was also impacted by a five-second penalty for speeding in the pitlane, suspected that his early contact with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri had resulted in the sidepod injury.
“There was a lot of damage on the sidepod,” he said. “I touched a bit with Piastri at Turn 4, I don’t know if it came from there.
“It was unfortunate because we had a good start, but from then on, the car was just nowhere nothing I could do, I was just off balance.
“Also with making a mistake on going into the pit lane with the pit limiter, it was just a disaster of a race that started really well.
“But I think with just lacking so much pace out there and lagging around, there was no hope for fighting people again.”
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