Red Bull’s Sergio Perez holds the belief that even without Max Verstappen encountering trouble, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz would have emerged victorious in the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix.
Verstappen, starting from pole position, faced brake issues right from the beginning of the Melbourne race. Despite initially losing the lead to Sainz on lap 2 due to this problem, it was not long before Verstappen’s right rear brake completely failed on lap 4, ultimately forcing him to retire from the race.
However, Perez credits Ferrari’s exceptional race performance and their adept handling of front tyre graining, a skill evident during practice sessions, as evidence supporting his assertion that Sainz would have prevailed over Verstappen regardless of the latter’s mechanical issues.
When questioned by Sky Sports F1 about whether Ferrari could have still clinched victory even without Verstappen’s setbacks, Perez confidently responded with, “Absolutely.”
“I think just as a team, we just didn’t have the pace today. We didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend.
“We were struggling already from Friday and we never got on top of the management of tyres.”
Perez concluded the race in fifth place, facing challenges in advancing from sixth on the starting grid. He holds the opinion that circuits such as Albert Park, where the front tires endure greater stress compared to the rear tires, pose a vulnerability for the Milton Keynes team.
“We were struggling early on, we could see that Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. I think we just couldn’t get the balance in a window. And there is some work to do for the coming races.
“We already saw last year in a track like this – for example, Las Vegas a front-limited track – Ferrari was a lot stronger than us so we just couldn’t look after the front tyres.”
Perez faced additional challenges due to a three-place grid penalty for impeding during qualifying, resulting in him dropping from third to sixth on the starting grid.
Consequently, he found himself consuming his tires while trailing behind the struggling Mercedes of George Russell at the beginning of the race.
Despite his efforts, Perez failed to close the gap on fourth-placed Oscar Piastri in the McLaren during the final stint. Ultimately, he fell behind by 18 seconds before Russell’s crash occurred.
“Yeah, the race would have looked a little bit different to how it looked, because basically the first stint we just [got stuck] behind Russell,” he elaborated.
“Losing the place to him was very damaging and, yeah… just a very bad weekend. Plenty of understanding for us to do.”
