Sergio Perez suffers RB20 setback ahead of Brazilian Grand Prix

Sergio Perez has revealed his RB20 will not be fitted with Red Bull’s new floor at the Brazilian Grand Prix where he will once again be on the older, heavier spec.

Red Bull brought a new floor to the United States Grand Prix, one that featured a revised edge designed to increase local load.

Sergio Perez will not race Red Bull’s new floor in Brazil

The team only had one and it was fitted to championship leader Max Verstappen’s car. He went on to win the Sprint before finishing the Grand Prix in third place.

One race later he was fighting for a podium when he was slapped with two 10-second penalties that dropped him outside of the points. He recovered to finish P6.

In both races, he was comfortably ahead of Perez who was running an older floor and was seventh and P17 in the two Grands Prix respectively.

Perez will continue with that floor at the Interlagos race.

“No, we don’t have it at the moment,” Perez confirmed during Thursday’s media day in Brazil. “Hopefully for Vegas now that there will be a little bit more time, I will have it.”

Asked if running the older floor played a part in the issues he experienced in Mexico where he complained about his braking, Perez replied: “Well, there’s something in it. Also a bit of weight. We’re carrying a little bit of weight and so on.

“It’s not ideal but obviously the team is doing the best they can. We’ve been affected with so many incidents for now, so the team is pushing flat out.”

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Perez arrived in Brazil determined to shrug off his Mexican Grand Prix woes as the driver looks to secure his first podium result since April’s Chinese GP, round five of the season, as he fights for his F1 future.

“We understood a lot of the issues we had in Mexico, on my side when you look at my first 10 laps of Mexico they were looking good and competitive,” he said.

“But we definitely have to find [something] – when you look at the pace from McLaren and Ferrari, they seem to be in another level in the last two races.

“I really hope that we can be in the mix here. We understood a few of the issues, but it’s just not very clear how we’re going to solve them. It’s a different track, the altitude probably had a bigger impact on us [in Mexico], so we’ll see. I think tomorrow [Friday] we will have a pretty good idea on where we are.”

As for rumours that he could be replaced by Red Bull before the season is over, or at the latest at the end of the year, a defiant Perez called that nothing but rumours.

“No, not at all. It’s just rumours, at the end of the day,” he said. “You will see me in Vegas, you will see me next year. I’m not the one that worries about it.”

Red Bull lost second place in the Constructors’ Championship in Mexico and now trail Ferrari by 25 points with four races remaining. Max Verstappen still holds the lead in the Drivers’ standings but his advantage over Lando Norris is down to 47 points.

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