During the Chinese GP, Sergio Perez ultimately had to settle for third place on the podium. Not something that made the Mexican happy and he is talking about a race of missed opportunities.
Red Bull started the race with Max Verstappen on pole and Sergio Perez in second place. At the finish there was a victory for Verstappen and a third place for Sergio Perez. Perez was therefore not completely satisfied with the result achieved.
During the start, Perez lost second place to Fernando Alonso. A few laps later, Perez managed to pass Alonso again, but due to a safety car phase later in the race, Perez dropped to fourth place. Perez fell behind Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc, who both tried to implement a one-pit-stop strategy.
“Unfortunately there was the safety car and we lost two places,” Perez looks back on his race. “We rode most of the race on the hard tyre.”
“If you have to compete like this from the beginning, it will be at the expense of the lifespan of the tyres and then their performance will be dramatic.”
“We at least managed to get on the podium again but it would have been better if we had achieved a 1-2.”
It was striking during the race that Perez was seriously inferior to teammate and race winner Max Verstappen in terms of his race speed. Without going into detail, Perez made it clear that the team already has an explanation for that difference.
“I think we definitely lacked speed, especially on the medium tyre compound,” said Perez. “We struggled a bit with the balance, we changed a lot from Saturday to Sunday.”
“We were not able to read the conditions as perfectly as we could. But overall I think it was a strong weekend and we understand the reasons why the race pace was a little less good.”