Sergio Perez recently expressed his primary goal for the 2024 Formula 1 season with Red Bull. He aims to avoid getting caught up with the car’s development throughout the year. Perez had a strong start to the previous season, winning two out of the first four races and closing the gap to his teammate Max Verstappen in the championship. However, a crash in Monaco’s qualifying stage led to a string of poor performances, ending his chances at the title. Despite this, Perez is optimistic about his future with Red Bull and believes he will bounce back stronger this year. He plans to learn from his mistakes and maximize every opportunity that comes his way. Perez has been focusing on understanding the difficult races from last season to prevent a similar slump from occurring again. He also emphasized the importance of learning from their direction in car development and avoiding overcompensation.
Perez’s difficulties reached their peak during a challenging period where he only managed to score a single point in Qatar and Japan, all while encountering problems on both race weekends.
While acknowledging that Red Bull’s dominant RB19 car was developed independently of him, Perez confesses that his struggles stemmed from choosing the wrong setup directions.
“I believe that, more than anything, we faced some issues during the car’s development, and our attempts to address those issues ended up compromising the car’s performance rather than making it faster,” he explained when asked if he was hindered by trying to adapt too much.
“I’ve come to understand that being more comfortable doesn’t necessarily mean being faster, and this is something we realized, especially during the lowest point of the season in Qatar and Japan when we learned a lot of valuable lessons.”
A thorough analysis conducted with his team of engineers at Red Bull’s Milton Keynes headquarters proved to be a turning point for Perez, allowing him to bounce back and finish the season on a stronger note.
However, the six-time Grand Prix winner doesn’t anticipate that his breakthrough will be transferable to Red Bull’s RB20 challenger.
“With the changes we’ve made to the car, it’s all about improvement, learning, and growing alongside the car,” he stated.
“The season is long, so it doesn’t really matter where we start in Bahrain; what matters is where we finish in Abu Dhabi. It’s a crucial season, and our main focus will be on progressing throughout.”
Perez also believes that he must discover his own approach to car setup throughout this season, despite acknowledging that he has a reliable point of reference in Verstappen.
“There’s no magic solution that is inherently right or wrong; it’s about remaining open-minded throughout the season and ensuring that we find the right path to unlock our pace and continue developing from there,” he concluded regarding his strategy.
According to the Source motorsportweek.com