Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, 2022

Perez “definitely more comfortable” in this year’s Red Bull

RaceFans Round-up

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez says he finds Red Bull’s latest car easier to get on with than the one he drove in his first season with the team last year.

In brief

Perez taking less time to get comfortable in 2022 Red Bull

Perez has already taken one win and his first career pole position this year, and lies second in the world championship. Having found last year’s RB16B a challenge to drive, Perez says he finds the team’s current car more user-friendly.

“I’m definitely more comfortable with the car than I was last year,” he said. “For example, it took me a bit longer to adapt to last year’s car. This year I can feel that already from FP1 I can start working on the car instead of working how to exploit the maximum out of the car. So that’s a huge difference over the weekend.

“When I go into qualifying I’m much more prepared and similarly when I go into the race I think we’ve got a good platform. I’m confident with the car and I know what I have to do with the team to take the most out of it.”

Andretti would “super good” addition to F1 – Alonso

Fernando Alonso has spoken up in support of Michael Andretti’s bid to join the Formula 1 grid. The Alpine driver, who raced for Andretti at the Indianapolis 500 five years ago, believes they would make a strong 11th team.

“They are very good organisation, very professional, they have a lot of good guys there,” said Alonso. “Formula 1 is a different level for sure but they have the passion for motorsport and it will be super good, I think, for the sport to have Andretti name on the grid.”

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Comment of the day

Kevin Magnussen shouldn’t have been forced to pit for a front wing change due to damage during the Canadian Grand Prix, says Nick T:

We should be talking about that insane black and orange for Magnussen instead. Ocon even admitted he wasn’t worried and only complained over the radio hoping to get past him. Magnussen also rightly pointed out that in Jeddah Hamilton kept going with half his wing off and said Hamilton should have been allowed to do that too.

F1 is becoming such a sissy sport due to the zero risk tolerance of the race directors. Do they even have actual former racers making the calls?
Nick T

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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17 comments on “Perez “definitely more comfortable” in this year’s Red Bull”

  1. I disagree cotd. Of course Mag was a black and orange, whether we like it or not we couldn’t judge how safe the wing was and whether it was going to just fly off or hit anyone. Thank though for reminding me of the jeddah incident. I was waiting for Race direction to fail to be consistent and fair, they have indeed started to favour the top teams. Top runners.

    1. Ham’s wing was last year. Facepalm.

    2. Indeed @peartree. This is exactly why we have such a flag.

  2. I think the black and orange flag for Magnussen’s wing damage was the right call.

    As to Hamilton in Jeddah. That was last year under a different race director and additionally from memory the end plate fell off on it’s own and so there was therefore no longer a reason to give him the black and orange flag.

    In situations like that its usually down to if the bit hanging off is likely to fall off and be a danger to that car or others. If the bit falls off on it’s own before a black and orange flag is called it’s usually seen as OK to leave the car out.

    I can recall examples in the past in F1 as well as other series of a car getting a black and orange flag only for it to be rescinded if the bit falls off before he pitted.

  3. Why are the front wings so much more robust under the new regulations? I’m assuming it’s the new regulations, and presumably it’s a factor in the weight issue everyone seems to be struggling with now. What exactly changed? For years F1 front wings would explode under a sneeze and now we see drivers reverse out of tyre walls seemingly unscathed.

    Obviously Kmag in Canada is an example of that not happening. But mostly they seem a lot stronger now. They can’t be part of the crash structure, is it just new weight tests on them? Not long ago Kmag and Romain would get through 5 Haas front wings in a weekend. Even Nikita couldn’t break this generation of front wing it seems.

    1. They were already clearly stronger in the last 2 years @bernausaurus. I think it might have been a bit of a focus with the latest changes they made to the rules.

      1. Also, @bernasaurus, efforts to prevent tyre cutting probably made edges more rounded but also stronger, so that seems to also helped against breaking them.

  4. I see from the link headline that the Grauniad are still doing typos:

    Webber backs ‘phenomenal’ Verstappen to cruise to another F1 title (The Guardian)
    ;)

  5. such a sissy sport

    My comments were withheld for less; I guess Masi took over the marshalling here ;)

  6. Will Mansell ever shave off that Moustache, LOL?

    I share Webber’s view. Unless Max begins to endure DNFs & or points-losses via other ways, this season’s championship is effectively his to lose.

    Melbourne’s globally somewhat isolated location is an issue, similar to Kyalami, but a Melbourne-Sakhir-Jeddah triple-header would be good in this regard, both travel & jet lag-wise.
    Furthermore, Melbourne has been a standalone many times before & no one ever really complained.

    COTD: Some risks are unworthy, so better go safe than give any chance, even tiny, for things to go wrong.

    1. @jerejj I feel like Mansell is one of those people who were born ‘old’. He’ll probably out live us all, moustache and everything.

  7. Chris Horton
    26th June 2022, 11:13

    “Super good”

  8. Brundle talking about Australian GP: “It’s an important element to us, if we want to call ourselves a world championship”

    Well, F1 hasn’t raced in Asia since 2019 not in Africa since 1993 so I guess it is not a world championship after all… I like the Australian GP and want it to stay on the calendar but this is not a valid argument to keep it.

    As for the limitation of the environmental impact of F1, the best way to act would probably be to stop expanding the calendar. I remember a time where 20 races was considered to many (http://en.espn.co.uk/f1/motorsport/story/28869.html for example, but team principals expressed the same idea) and we are getting more races every year now. I am happy with a lot of things Liberty Media did to open up Formula One but they are clearly pushing to increase the value of their product. First by increasing the fan base (great!) and the derived products and now by shoving as many events in the calendar as is possible and acceptable by the teams. Money comes before everything else as some drivers expressed in the recent past… They may not be here for the long run but looking for a very profitable exit in the coming years.

    1. F1 hasn’t raced in Asia since 2019

      What about all the races in the Middle East?

      1. Yes, you’re right. But Asia is very big ^^

        What I meant is there hasn’t been a GP in the most populated area of the world (more than 3 billion people) in a few years.

  9. The world doesn’t care so much about what Piquet says anymore…. If he’s speaking in a derogatory manner, then he’s only making himself look bad, isn’t he.

    Interestingly, looking up the word you mention brings far more positive connotations than negative ones.
    Just as with other words – it’s not just what you say but how you mean it that matters.
    And in written media, it’s often impossible to tell what the intention was.

  10. @becken-lima It is about last year’s British gp, Nelson is 100% right. Don’t know why we are only hearing this now.

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