Sergio Perez has often complained about how he finds it difficult to adjust his driving style to get the best out of Red Bull’s RB20. However, Pierre Wache has claimed that the Mexican’s style had nothing to do with the way the team developed the car. In an interview with Motorsport, the French engineer said,
“Of course, you have different driving styles, but that is not what we use the development of the car for. That is what we use the setup for. Sometimes you make the car faster, while the driver feels uncomfortable with it. On the other hand, it is not the case that we are not getting the maximum potential out of the car if it is not difficult to drive“.
| Pierre Wache gives some insight on the RB20’s development while considering the different driving styles of Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez.
“Of course you have different driving styles, but that is not what we use the development of the car for. That is what we use the… pic.twitter.com/hKfRgCLNYs
— Motorsport Hour (@MotorsportHour) August 11, 2024
Wache clarified this after several experts claimed that Red Bull designed its cars to suit Max Verstappen‘s strengths. The Red Bull Technical Director insisted that a fast car would be fast for both drivers, and not just one.
“If we make the car faster in a way that Checo can use it well, then it actually means that both drivers can get the most out of it. Even if the preferences are slightly different, what they need from the car is basically the same,” the French engineer added.
Still, the question as to why Red Bull’s second drivers – even before Perez – had struggled so much. Whereas when they moved to other teams, they performed reasonably well.
Perez had claimed that Red Bull’s cars were catered to Verstappen, and such speculation was unlikely to have come out of thin air.
Alex Albon once explained why he failed to match Verstappen
Last year, Alex Albon appeared on an episode of the High-Performance podcast where he explained how Verstappen had a unique driving style that was difficult to emulate. Albon stated that the “car is what it is” before he added,
“He [Verstappen] has a quite unique driving style actually. I would say my driving style is a bit more on the smooth side, but I like a car that has a good front end, so quite sharp, quite direct. Max [Verstappen] does, too, but his level of sharp and direct is, kind of another, it’s a whole different level“.
Albon also said that since Verstappen usually asked the team to increase the sharpness of the car with each race, if his teammate was unable to cope with it, they usually ended up suffering.
This could be a reason why the likes of Albon, Perez, and Pierre Gasly have suffered as Verstappen’s teammate in the past.
