Sergio Perez had a bittersweet debut as a Red Bull driver at the season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix last month, a below-par qualifying followed by a stellar race which almost never happened, but the biggest learning curve for the veteran was Max Verstappen’s driving style.
The Dutchman is Red Bull’s number one driver simply because he is substantially faster than anyone they put into the sister car. Perez knows that and will need to raise that aspect of his game to be anything beyond his teammate’s wingman this season.
While the quirks of a new team are sure to have had the Mexican well occupied with familiarisation, the big lessons he is learning are on track, given to him by his 23-year-old teammate.
In the team’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix preview Perez was asked what he made of his first race in the Blue of Red Bull, he replied: “I learned a lot.
“I learned more about Max’s driving style and how the car has to be driven to extract the maximum from it. I think that was the biggest learning, I know what balance I need from the car throughout the weekend,” explained Checo.
Imola provides the 31-year-old with a chance to put the chaos of Bahrain behind him: “My goal is to have a good race and I’m looking forward to the weekend.
“Hopefully in Imola, we can come back and be in contention to fight for a podium and hopefully the win. Unlike Bahrain, qualifying is very important at Imola as you can hardly overtake there but I like it.
“I think it’s going to be very tight with Mercedes and we’re going to see if the fight is circuit related. It will be interesting to see how we are in Imola, on a very different track to Bahrain, and see how we compare against them.”
Recalling the crazy season-opening weekend at Sakhir last month, Perez said: “It really was eventful, I thought the race was over before we even started, but we were lucky to get the car going. It’s always important to maximise the ‘bad days’ and get the most out of them.
“In the end, it was a very positive race recovery with some good points scored for the Team. I think it was also very important to drive those kilometres and complete the race distance in order to get up to speed quickly with the car, the Team and all of the processes.”
As for the computer glitch that tool a CTRL-ALT-DEL to revive the stricken car, Perez said: “I had no clue what was going on but I stayed calm. Everything just shut down, the radio, the telemetry, everything was fully off and for a moment I couldn’t do anything.
“I was about to get out of the car and then that second, we managed to turn the car back on. In the end I think we were very lucky I stayed in the car and we managed to get going again, even though we had to start the race from the pit lane,” explained Perez.
Through the pit lane with @SChecoPerez ? Ft. new team radio ? #NeverGiveUp ?
Watch in full ?? https://t.co/qbrcXy9oTG pic.twitter.com/Rgx9EeNyRC
— Red Bull Racing Honda (@redbullracing) April 12, 2021