Sergio Perez receives apology from Red Bull engineers over RB20 feedback

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.

With the RB20 issues raised by Sergio Perez now much “clearer”, apologies have been coming in from Red Bull team members.

After a strong start to F1 2024, Perez suffered an alarming drop in form despite agreeing a new multi-year Red Bull contract, sparking speculation over his future with the team going into the summer break, where Perez received Red Bull’s backing to continue alongside Max Verstappen.

Sergio Perez getting apologies from Red Bull engineers

But while Verstappen had still been operating at the front of the pack in that period, building up a comfortable Drivers’ Championship lead, he and Red Bull are now without a win in their last seven races, with McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari doing the winning in that time.

Verstappen has complained of balance issues with the RB20, as Red Bull look to act after losing the lead of the Constructors’ Championship to McLaren.

But one possible silver lining from all of this, from a Perez point of view, is that some Red Bull engineers have been acknowledging the error of their ways to Perez for dismissing his concerns as pace issues.

Asked ahead of the Singapore Grand Prix whether Red Bull are now realising that the RB20 has a fundamental issue and they should have listened to him earlier, Perez replied: “In a way, yes.

“To be fair, even some of the engineers after Monza came to me and did apologise, in a way, because now it’s a lot clearer, the issues that I was talking about.”

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez head-to-head in F1 2024

F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

F1 2024: Head-to-head qualifying record between team-mates

However, Perez was keen to stress that he did not lose support within Red Bull, even if outside noise was portraying a lack of focus.

“But also, in all fairness, I’ve always had all the support from all the engineers,” Perez continued.

“It was also the speculation around it and like people saying, you know, the problem was that I wasn’t focused enough on my racing or other things.

“But at the end of the day, I’m just happy that we found out the problem and we can focus on that and improve it.”

Perez was in contention to end Red Bull’s victory drought in Baku, only for his race to end on a disappointing note after colliding with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz in the closing stages.

Nonetheless, it was a race which Perez can take momentum from.

Asked if Baku felt like a turning point, Perez replied: “Yeah, definitely.

“I think we got a good momentum in Baku. I think we definitely were in the mix for the win. We had the pace to win. So I think it’s all positive. I think there’s a lot of positives to take from that weekend. We had the pace to do so.

“I think now we have closed up the gap, and hopefully we can confirm that in a different track and different layout. And if we are able to do that, I think our season can still get back on track.”

Perez sits P8 in the Drivers’ Championship going into the Singapore GP, tied on points with Mercedes’ George Russell a position ahead.

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