Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted he was surprised Sergio Perez failed to react immediately to the lights changing at the start of today’s sprint race, leading to him being passed by a rival.
Perez and Franco Colapinto started the sprint race from the pit lane after their teams altered their cars’ set-ups under parc ferme conditions. The Red Bull lined up ahead of the Williams at the pit exit but when the control light turned green Perez did not move initially.Colapinto drew alongside him and immediately accelerated past the Red Bull driver. The Williams finished ahead of him.
Horner was puzzled by what he saw. “I need to have a chat with him about it because it just looked like he was caught napping a little bit and obviously Colapinto got the jump on him,” he told the official F1 channel.
As Perez was eliminated in the first round of qualifying yesterday, Red Bull opted to use the race as a practice session. As well as changing the set-up on his car the team brought him in during the race to change front wings.
“We managed to get some useful data from Checo in that race,” said Horner. “We managed to change the nose as well so we got some good feedback that hopefully we can use for this afternoon.”
“Basically, on a day that we weren’t going to score points with him, it was better to get as much knowledge as we could,” he explained. “So that’s what we’ve done, we’ve got some data now to look at between now and the next session, so hopefully we can make good use of it.”
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
Perez said he did not want to run close behind other cars to ensure he had clean air in order to gather useful data about his car’s aerodynamic performance.
“The main objective of today was to be as further back as possible, to have as much clean air as possible,” he said. “That was the objective.
“I think we managed to understand the car with the changes we’ve done. I think there is some room to improve what we have to do going forwards. We we have to try and bring a little bit more balance to the car.”
Miss nothing from RaceFans
Get a daily email with all our latest stories - and nothing else. No marketing, no ads. Sign up here:
2024 Qatar Grand Prix
- Horner ‘believes 100%’ Verstappen did not threaten to crash into Russell
- Russell and Verstappen cast new light on clash which triggered explosive row
- Hamilton’s puncture not caused by mirror debris – Mercedes
- Another start-to-finish win shows Qatar GP could be F1’s most processional race
- “Am I dead last now?” Unheard radio from Hamilton’s disastrous Qatar GP
Haas Khan (@haas918)
30th November 2024, 15:53
But this guy has a contract for next year. Unbelievable!
Doh
30th November 2024, 20:05
Did you see just now in quali he went wide through the gravel and he wasn’t even on a push lap. I’m staring to think something may be wrong maybe he’s unfit or for whatever reason his mind isn’t in it
Owen Smart (@smartez)
30th November 2024, 15:55
Perez has been “napping” since Monaco
Aquila_GD
30th November 2024, 15:58
He did not want to be in dirty air but he saw Colapinto back from the pits.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th November 2024, 16:02
I don’t recall anyone ever failing at reacting to green light at pit exit. Embarrassing.
Fer no.65 (@fer-no65)
30th November 2024, 19:36
I don’t understand how he still got overtaken anyway. If you see the onboard, Franco didn’t expect Perez staying there and has to go around him. By that time, Perez was already moving forward and he was still overtaken on pit exit!
Roy Beedrill
2nd December 2024, 15:07
I recall a certain one failing at reacting to a red one. ;-)
Leo B
30th November 2024, 16:06
I’m not expecting to see Perez on the grid next year. Shame on everyone at RBR that Carlos Sainz will not be in that car.
BLS (@brightlampshade)
30th November 2024, 16:10
It’s fine, reacting to lights is not important when it comes to driving F1 cars.
Perez is still a good option for RBR
SteveP
30th November 2024, 16:13
Ah, “napping a bit” – the English art of understatement.
Others might say Perez has been napping for most of the season. Was he bitten by a tsetse fly?
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
30th November 2024, 16:13
Does Checo have to turn up 30 minutes late for a race before people start to realise that he just couldn’t give a damn any more.
MarkWebber (@markwebber)
30th November 2024, 16:17
From Perez’s onboard camera it looked like he was checking his mirrors as Colapinto was coming just in time to have a rolling start, which caused him to miss the green light.
Edvaldo
30th November 2024, 16:22
Well, he can argue that if they were using the race as a practice session, it doesn’t matter if he was sleeping or not, but the data he collected.
2025 is right here, he has a contract, and who knows, it might be his year, Red Bull needs to have a little bit of faith in him
Keith Campbell (@keithedin)
30th November 2024, 19:30
Generally you want to run in clear air to gain the most valuable data though. He lost that opportunity by allowing Colapinto to pass him, so they couldn’t see Perez’s true pace or deg level in free air. He didn’t that that much to gain from the session, but it was still a very poor lack of attention.
Carsten Nielsen (@carstenb)
30th November 2024, 16:28
Such a waste of a competitive race seat. I cannot believe how bad the performance of Checo has been this season. Economically Checo might be a better option than any other driver, but what an embarrassing showing it is.
Stephen Taylor
30th November 2024, 17:00
That’s a pretty delusional statement to be honest. You cannot have faith in someone that doesn’t contribute anything meaningful to the WCC hopes of RBR.
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
30th November 2024, 17:11
IMO more embarrassing for Horner and Red Bull than PER. We all thought STR was just cruising along since his father owns the team but that kid seems to work hard and stay competitive. PER has no business being in F1 any longer. None.
MichaelN
30th November 2024, 17:33
Indeed, and let’s not forget Pérez isn’t a doofus. He did exactly what a guy in his position should earlier on in the year.
That he was always going to come up short in a situation where Ferrari and McLaren have decent enough cars to challenge is expected. But we’re talking something like Bottas in 2018; worst of the top teams but still close enough. Not whatever this is, way down, out in Q1, losing battles to rookies, etc.
I’m surprised Horner is never asked to explain how 1) Pérez suddenly fell way back and 2) why he keeps putting him in the car. This story is weird. Something is off.
Mark (@blueruck)
30th November 2024, 17:23
PER can’t blame the car this time….RB had the car to win both championships this year….. must be really difficult within the team to watch points being thrown away week after week.
bernasaurus (@bernasaurus)
30th November 2024, 17:34
I’ve really tried to avoid jumping on the ‘Checo is terrible’ wagon. We don’t know what goes on behind the scenes, obviously money is involved and Max is a special talent, the second seat at Red Bull is certainly the second seat. The field is very very close now, and the Red Bull isn’t at the front of that field, so yeah, the odd Q1 elimination will /can happen.
But for Checo to have been in F1 for 14 years and have someone who’s been in F1 (4 or 5 races?) realise the race has started before he did, in the pit lane………
The Red Bull might not be the quickest car right now, but it’s still the quick enough to win the title. Everyone would love to see Sainz sat in that seat, quite frankly anyone in F2 in that car.
I might have gone off the deep end with this one……. why not rotate drivers with a super license? Put it under ‘Celebrating 20 years of the Young Drivers scheme’ and have Buemi, Hartley, Vettel et al have a race each, through Herta in even?
There would be lots of development and financial drawbacks, but the marketing value might make it work? Surely better than Checo, doing what he’s doing now.
CarWars (@maxv)
30th November 2024, 20:56
Siesta time