Sergio Perez laments his difficulty of adjusting to a Honda-powered car after having driven Mercedes powered cars since 2013.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez said that in the 2021 season adjusting to a Honda-powered car and its driveability was his biggest headache.
Perez moved to Red Bull in the 2021 season after driver Mercedes power unit since 2013. The Mexican racing driver had a very mixed 2021 season in terms of results. It was only towards the end of the race that he became consistent with his performance.
He delivered a commendable performance in the last race of the season by defending against Hamilton. Perez’s defence against the seven-time world champion helped his teammate Max Verstappen to get closer to his title rival.
Later on, Verstappen honoured his teammate for the stupendous job and nicknamed him ‘the minister of defence.’ However, reflecting on his year with the energy drinks company, Perez pointed out that he particularly struggled in adjusting with the power unit.
He said, “Even as a driver, you underestimate these things until you live them, and experience them. But driving a different power unit, it’s a completely different task.”
“Like driving a completely different philosophy of car with the high rake versus lower rake… it’s a completely different task and the way you approach things are just extremely different.”
“You have to learn new techniques. Basically, what I used to do, nothing really worked,” he further added.
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Sergio Perez has no specific area of weakness
The 31-year-old driver also said that if Max shifts to a Mercedes powered car, he would face the same problems in initial adjustments.
“So it would be the same, for example, if Max went to Mercedes – they are very different, they produce very similar lap times but the way they get the lap time is extremely different,” he explained.
Moreover, talking about where he feels he is losing out to Verstappen, he says he has no specific area of weakness. Now that he is comfortable with the engine he feels confident going into the next season with his competitive side.
With the huge rules reset that F1 has undergone for the 2022 season, Perez has prepared from a view of playing alongside Verstappen in 2022.
He said, “every circuit is different, there are some circuits where I’m more competitive than others so it’s very much down to circuit-specific rather than certain corners.”
“We already have a baseline that we can work from and improve that one. So that makes a huge difference. I already know the people, I already know what is what and how to get the most out of every single individual around me. So that’s a very different picture.”
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