Sergio Perez lifts lid on Red Bull problems with Max Verstappen now affected

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen.

Sergio Perez believes Max Verstappen is now feeling the effects of the Red Bull RB20’s problems that have been hurting him since earlier in the year.

The Red Bull team-mates will line up on the fourth row of the Monza grid with Verstappen ahead of Perez, and the team faces the prospect of losing the lead in the Constructors’ Championship to McLaren who locked out the front row of the grid.

Sergio Perez: Red Bull problems now ‘coming also to Max’

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher and Sam Cooper

Red Bull’s troubles hit a new low in qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix where Verstappen was almost seven-tenths down on pole-sitter and title rival Lando Norris while Perez was a further 0.04s back.

The Dutchman lamented that his RB20 was “just not driveable in any corner, so that’s something that is very weird.”

But while he went on to state that he had “never experienced something like that before”, for Perez the problems with the RB20 have plagued him all season.

“Yeah, they have been with me a long time,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com, at Monza.

“Like I said before, they seemed to be hurting me more earlier in the year than they did Max. Now they seem to be coming also to Max.

“So I think it’s something that we don’t have a quick fix for now, but hopefully in the short-term we are able to dial in some connection to the car, and then the pace will be a lot better.”

Perez revealed Red Bull’s issues at Monza were “very similar when we were in Zandvoort” despite the two being very different tracks.

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Perez explained that the balance of the RB20 is the team’s biggest problem at present, but that wasn’t helped by the lack of a Monza-specification rear wing.

Throw in an issue on the new tyres and the Mexican driver fears Red Bull will struggle to make inroads during the Grand Prix.

“At the moment the disconnection in the balance we are currently facing is the main issue,” said Perez. “We can get some competitive laps at times, but it’s very difficult to have any progression.

“Not having a Monza [specific] rear wing as well has hurt us, probably more than we thought in the beginning.

“And also something with the tyres. I go quicker with the scrubbed tyre, I put the new tyre [on] and everything feels a lot weaker. Higher grip but I cannot get there.

“So, a few things that explain the half a second that we currently have to the front.

“Hopefully tomorrow [the race] the car can be a little bit more connected – you’re not pushing as much the [corner] entries, so hopefully that brings us back and we can have a stronger race pace. But it’s going to be really hard to overtake.”

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