Perez confident Red Bull ‘on top’ of reliability

Editor 23 Apr 2022 2:45 PM

Sergio Perez aerial shot. Imola April 2022

An aerial photograph of Sergio Perez in the Red Bull RB18, the car fitted with the soft Pirelli tyres. Imola April 2022

Having recorded three DNFs in the first three race weekends, Sergio Perez is convinced Red Bull will line up on the Imola grid “on top” of their problems.

Red Bull have haemorrhaged points in the opening three races of this season, Max Verstappen losing 34 through his two retirements and Perez robbed of 15 when he stopped out on track at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

All three DNFs have been blamed on fuel pressure problems, a value issue for both drivers in Bahrain and a broken fuel line for Verstappen in Australia.

Their bosses have assured both drivers that the problems have been fixed, Red Bull working with Honda to do just that.

Perez says he is not expecting any more ugly surprises.

Ever the optimist, the Mexican driver said as per GPFans: “What gives us hope is all the issues and reliability problems we have had, we have understood them and we were able to fix them.

“So from now, hopefully there are no more surprises. Something unexpected can happen still but we feel like we are on top of them.”

Great job @Max33Verstappen
Today we had the pace for a 1-2 finish.
Was a chaotic qualy session, but we’re going to charge with everything tomorrow! #RedBullRacing pic.twitter.com/jvgAGvHqxT

— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) April 22, 2022

As a result of all the technical issues, Red Bull has created a 49 point deficit between themselves and Ferrari, the current Constructors’ leaders.

With previous midfield teams looking stronger than ever it is imperative the Milton Keynes squady manages some points finishes if they want to be involved in the title race this season.

“Certainly in Melbourne they were probably two steps ahead,” said Perez, “especially on race day they [Ferrari] were very strong. I think our deg was quite high come race day.

“[It is] Critical for us as a team to make sure we are able to collect the points we are able to get weekend by weekend because so far it has been extremely painful.

“We will see what we are able to do this weekend. I think as the season progresses the teams will get closer.”

It would certainly seem that Red Bull has managed to sort out their problems as Friday’s qualifying and Saturday’s FP2 results saw top five finishes and much better pace and tire conservation than previous races.

Perez outdid himself in FP2 and managed to place in P2 behind Russell, a marked improvement from the P7 finish of qualifying even though he felt he could’ve finished higher.