Perez ‘still in the same boat’ despite closing gap to Verstappen

Sergio Perez admitted to taking no satisfaction from his disappointing Italian Grand Prix despite his improved performance relative to Red Bull teammate Max Verstappen.

The Mexican concluded his day at Monza in eighth position, two spots behind Verstappen, but it was another tough race for the Milton Keynes-based outfit whose drivers were worryingly never in the fight for the podium.

Both drivers executed a two-stop race but Perez was called in for his second stop and switch to the medium compound well before his teammate in a bid to hinder the progress of Mercedes’ George Russell.

While the latter was eventually able to gain the upper hand over Perez, Russell never managed to overhaul Verstappen.

“Yeah, the medium was quite tricky,” commented Perez. “We compromised a little bit the strategy to try and keep George behind, who was quite a lot faster than us.

“Yeah, unfortunately not enough and we struggled with balance today.”

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Indeed, balance was a hot topic in the Red Bull camp where everyone was trying to understand the root cause of the disconnect between the rear and the front impacting the RB20’s behavior and performance.

“We need to be able to stop the car and be able to carry the speed,” noted Perez.

“The problem is that we are not able to throw the car in because the rear is nowhere. So it’s something we have to work on.”

Even though Perez had qualified just 0.040 seconds behind Verstappen on Saturday and had raced closer to his teammate, he didn't see it as a sign of personal improvement or a reason for optimism.

The Mexican suggested that Verstappen was now dealing with the same plight that impacted Perez over the summer.

“I really feel like I’ve been in the same boat for the last 8/10 races, but now all of a sudden Max has come to similar issues. So a little bit of confusion there,” he said.

For Perez, being closer to his teammate means nothing if the car isn’t performing at its best.

“I wish that the gap was a lot bigger and that Max was winning because at the end that would only help the team and in the Constructors’ especially.

“So yeah, we got a lot of work to do to fix this issue and hopefully in the next few races it can be better for us.”

Perez viewed the fact that the team now has a clear understanding of the problem impacting its car as a positive.

“I think the good thing is that we have no questions," he said. "Now we know exactly where the issue is. We can clearly see it on the data. It’s just how to fix it, how to attack it.

"The next few weeks are going to be very important," he emphasized. "I’m already tomorrow in the factory with the team, with the engineers, because I think next week is going to be a very important one."

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