Sergio Perez got knocked out of Q1 during qualifying ahead of the 2024 Monaco GP. The Mexican driver will start from P18 on the grid, which is a disaster for Red Bull. The team’s chief advisor Helmut Marko wasn’t happy, and amidst mounting uncertainty about Perez’s future with the team, he issued a warning to him.
Marko said,
He [Perez] has to be closer. Now we have to analyze why it went so wrong here.”
Helmut Marko says Checo has to be closer to Max
“I think it is very difficult or even impossible to perform at the same level as Max Verstappen, but he has to be closer. Now we have to analyze why it went so wrong here.”
— RBR Daily (@RBR_Daily) May 25, 2024
This is the second year in a row that Perez has failed to progress to Q2 in Monaco. Moreover, it also signals a dip in form this season, as the Guadalajara-born driver failed to get into Q3 last weekend in Imola too.
Meanwhile, his teammate Max Verstappen fared better, but will still start from the third row. For Red Bull, a team that dominated F1 between 2022 and the early stages of 2024, this is an ominous sign. With overtaking a very difficult ordeal in the streets of Monaco, the race is all but lost for the Milton-Keynes-based outfit.
Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen are not happy with Red Bull’s performance at Monaco
After the qualifying session in Monaco, Perez revealed that he wasn’t happy with the RB20. Despite making several setup changes ahead of the session, he wasn’t able to get the best out of the car.
Perez also blamed traffic on his final Q1 lap, into turn six and seven, for his P18 finish. Verstappen, too, had similar feedback for the car. He struggled with it on the curbs and bumps. The 26-year-old also explained how the RB20 was not suited to race around the Principality.
Looking at Data, Verstappen loses > 3 tenths in the flat-out sections to Leclerc in FP2
The other big chunk bleeds away between Mirabeau and Portier
— Alex Brundle (@AlexBrundle) May 24, 2024
Throughout qualifying, the RB20 was losing time in the last two sectors of the track. F1 expert Martin Brundle also pointed out how desperate Verstappen was to maximize his pace on the first sector heading into Saint Devote. Alas, this mistake cost the Red Bull driver a further few places.
