Sergio Perez says he didn’t do a good job with track limits in F1 Qatar GP, as Christian Horner calls for a sit down.
It was another tough weekend for Red Bull’s Perez in F1 Qatar GP where he came away with just the one point after three track limits penalties. He finished ninth on the road but dropped to 10th due to post-race track limits penalty in a dismal run.
Throughout the race, Perez struggled to get temperature in his tyres and progress through the field. He felt his sitting position didn’t help with track limits, but reckons he should have done a better job as it he can’t use it as an excuse.
“The hard really complicated things for us, especially with the Safety Car,” said Perez. “We couldn’t warm up the tyre, and then we ended up losing positions. We couldn’t make progress quickly enough. That just meant that we were just not able to progress as much as we should.”
“We started the race and then the Safety Car for three laps and then, by the time I got through we had to stop. So it wasn’t an ideal race. It was a very difficult one. But not just the race, the whole weekend in all is something we need to look at. The track limits, to be honest, it was really hard for me inside the car to judge them.
“But it was the same for everybody. So I should have done a better job than what I did. I had a little bit of the same in Austria, I am sitting a little bit too low in the car and it made things a little harder. When they changed things last minute, I should’ve gone up,” summed up Perez as team boss Horner has called up for a sit down to sort him out.
So far Red Bull has been patient with him knowing that the titles are secured but time is running out even though he has a contract for 2024. Horner says they are desperate for him to find his form as they know he is a capable driver in all regards.
“I think we really need to sit down Checo because we know what he is capable of and he is not hitting that form at the moment and we desperately need him to find that form to keep this second place in the championship,” said Horner. “It is frustrating that he is only come out of the weekend with one point and I think even starting from the back of the grid, there was an opportunity to score heavily or decently but we will support him as much as we can because there’s a triple header coming up, there’s huge amount of points that is available.
“He’s going to have a lot of support the next two races or next three races really, in Latin America and in the US, and his home race in Mexico City. Hopefully that will help him find the form and and the confidence that he seems to have lost a little at the moment,” summed up Horner as he feels pressure and lack of confidence go hand in hand which can only be solved by Perez going back to basics as he fights for second in the standings.
“I think when you get into a bit of a spiral like that, the two things become intertwined,” said Horner. “And I think you just need to sometimes sort of take your foot, put it on the floor, stop the merry-go-round and just go back to basics. And that’s what we’ll do.
“We all know what Checo is capable of and we want to support him to get back into a position where even as as near ago as Monza he was finishing in second place to Max. Traditionally that is the way to support and we are fully behind him and we know what he is capable of, so that’s the form what we will need to fine”
Here’s FIA and drivers on extreme heat in Qatar GP
Here’s Max Verstappen on wanting to re-watch Qatar GP
