Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Silverstone, 2021

Perez “struggling the most” at Silverstone after spin ruins sprint qualifying run

2021 British Grand Prix

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Sergio Perez admitted he is struggling more at Silverstone than at other tracks after suffering a spin which left him last on the grid for tomorrow’s race.

The Red Bull driver said it had been “a poor day from my side”. He described how he lost control of his car at the exit of Becketts on lap five of the race.

“Getting out of the corner, [I was] already picking up quite a lot of throttle, and I think I got caught out with the dirty air,” said Perez. “I became a passenger basically, really early in the corner.”

Perez said he’s typically been able to improve him performance between Friday and Saturday but hasn’t made his usual gains at Silverstone.

“It’s been difficult from a Friday point of view,” he said, “but I think the pace has been there from Saturday and Sunday in terms of like, for example, in Austria one or Austria two everything would have looked very different without the incidents.

“Probably here is a place that we’ve been struggling the most. I did struggle a lot with the dirty air today. I don’t know if that’s related to lighter fuel load starting or something like that but I did struggle with the dirty air at the start of the race.”

After his spin, Perez said he had no realistic chance to improve his starting position. “It was set, I think,” he said. “We basically had a bit too much vibration on the tyres from the spin and it was pretty much it.”

His team called him into the pits on the final lap. “We thought there wasn’t much to gain so we preferred to retire the car,” Perez explained.

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2021 British Grand Prix

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16 comments on “Perez “struggling the most” at Silverstone after spin ruins sprint qualifying run”

  1. Pitchforks and fire for this clumsy man who cracked under pressure and… oops, it’s Checo, that’s fine!

    …but where is that Russian brat that spins a lot??? >|

    1. Well, the Russian man did manage to hit his teammate if it makes you any happier.

      1. Did I pluck a nerve over there, David?
        Because I don’t care a bit about Mazespin, but the selective bashing is something I like to provoke. ;)

  2. Every other driver managed Maggotts-Becketts close behind another car without spinning, so more like a driver error.
    I reckon he starts from the pit exit with setup changes and on the hard compound.

    1. Yes I thought it was a very strange spin. He was well clear of any kerbs and although that is a very fast corner, you are just threading your line.

      It seems that Perez was just a little clumsy with his inputs and the Red Bull responded viciously.

  3. I’m starting to get annoyed by Perez his poor performance. After all this time, Max is still going up against Lewis and Bottas all by himself. Perez just isn’t on the pace often enough and makes too many mistakes. I think it’s quickly becoming apparent that he’s not up to the job against the very best (Verstappen, Hamilton, Norris, Leclerc.. even Bottas). It’s not a total surprise but it is disappointing.

    1. @me4me Yeah it’s a shame. Finally had a fair fight between the teams, but this is handing Mercedes all the cards again. I had faith in him, but disappointing like you say.

      Red Bull need to get him on a qualifying program where his real issue seem to lie (he took risks today to recover a bad qualifying). Just soft tires and short runs from FP1 onward.

      1. They probably need to take russell from mercedes asap! Bottas seems to be doing a decent enough job to stay at merc, and I’m afraid russell will remain stuck at williams, so they need to take him while he’s available and he needs to leave merc cause he’s going nowhere.

        1. @esploratore1 I wouldn’t put it past Wolff to blackmail Russell to stay put at Williams for another 2 years, and I bet he would suck it up too

    2. He’s almost never on the pace. Constantly 4-8 tenths slower than Verstappen. Baku being the only outlier

  4. I was expecting this and I think I understand now his problems and others´ problems with the car. He doesn’t go faster in qualifying because he doesn’t want to, he’s afraid of this hapenning when the car is at the limit. And this, I believe, happens because of the high rake, the aerodynamical seal breaks in the middle of certain turns. It breaks and reseals but understanding where it breaks and where it reseals and how it feels and what the nesessary input for the driver is is apparently what is too difficult for most drivers.
    Interestingly I read about how the car most likely behaves from an article written by an engineer. Well, if he could understood it and some drivers could, theorically anybody can. It’s here where the complaints of counterintuitive driving comes from the drivers.

    1. …and why trying to adapt the car to the driver’s style doesn’t work.

    2. Reminded me of Vettel’s spin behind Hamilton at Bahrain 2019 when he suddenly lost downforce in a turn at the same time as giving too much throttle. Only Perez was a lot further back.

  5. RandomMallard (@)
    17th July 2021, 21:39

    I don’t find it too surprising that Perez is struggling more than others here. Everyone else raced here twice last season, Perez hasn’t raced here since 2019. Even the rookies all got F2 rounds here last year. Not a complete vindication but it may explain part of why he is struggling so much.

  6. Very disappointed by perez tbh, still not as bad as gasly or albon but he’s not doing his job, he’s not being a bottas, which isn’t much to ask from a driver considering how bottas gets criticized, he might be ahead on the championship, but if you consider the bad luck both drivers suffered I’m pretty sure bottas is doing better.

    And if you think about it, what’s the argument used to say red bull has so far been faster? Verstappen’s times, take away verstappen and most of the times it’s both merc ahead, not good enough from the 2nd driver.

    1. But Gasly and Albon were new to all of this.
      Maybe Gasly has matured enough to be a strong RBR driver now to help reeling in the titles.

      Otherwise Russell; making an offer will certainly annoy Toto.

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