Why Sergio Perez wishes gap was actually bigger to Max Verstappen after Monza troubles

Closer to Max Verstappen than he’s been since the early rounds of F1 2024, Sergio Perez actually wishes the gap at Monza had been “a lot bigger” as it would’ve been better for Red Bull in the standings.

Red Bull’s hopes of retaining the Constructors’ Championship suffered a huge blow at the Italian GP where McLaren outscored them by 22 points to close the gap to just eight points.

Sergio Perez finishes just two places behind Max Verstappen at Monza

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

On a weekend in which Red Bull struggled for pace, Perez recorded one of his better showings, at least in comparison to his team-mate Verstappen.

Only 0.04s down on Verstappen in qualifying, Perez took the chequered flag on Sunday in eighth place while Verstappen was P6. It was only the third time in 10 races that Perez had finished that close to his team-mate.

But rather than crowing about his gap to the Dutchman, he wishes Verstappen had been a lot further ahead as that would’ve been better for Red Bull in the standings.

“No, I wish the gap was a lot bigger and that Max was winning because at the end that will only help the team and in the Constructors’ especially,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com at Monza.

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

The Red Bull team-mate head-to-head stats in F1 2024

?F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

?F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Sergio Perez reveals Red Bull can ‘clearly see’ what the issue is

Red Bull struggled with the balance of the RB20 throughout the Monza weekend, Perez saying after qualifying that the problems he’d experienced all season “seem to be coming also to Max“.

But in the midst of the misery, there is an up side as he says Red Bull can “clearly see” what the issue is. They now just have to figure out how to fix it.

“I think the good thing is that we have no questions now,” Perez said about the RB20’s weakness. “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.

“And I think the next few weeks are going to be very important.

“I’m already tomorrow [Monday] in the factory with the team, with the engineers, because I think next week is going to be a very important one.”

Last week Red Bull team boss Christian Horner reportedly held a Zoom call with the “entire top” of Red Bull’s design and engineering departments in order to find a way forward.

According to Robert Doornbos, who revealed the meeting, when the “gap between Max and Perez becomes smaller“, it “indicates that there is no balance, and the car no longer listens to its talent. It wants more bite at the front, but those engineers have to do that.”

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