Perez and Red Bull confused: 'We still don't understand Singapore'
F1 News
![Sergio Perez hopeful for better result in Japanese Grand Prix](https://webp.gp.cdn.pxr.nl/news/2023/09/21/ac28eef085eff568d0339d6ae07d27b1a760d266.jpg?width=1800)
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- Toby McLuskie
The Japanese Grand Prix could not come soon enough for Sergio Perez and the Red Bull team, as they're looking to forget about last weekend's troubling performance in Singapore and get back to winning ways. When questioned about the unexpected result in the press conference today, the Mexican seemed hopeful for Suzuka.
"Well, that's definitely the target," Perez replied when asked if Red Bull will be back. "We still don't understand fully what went so wrong in Singapore. We have some ideas but certainly, this track is very different so there should not be a reason why we’re not strong in Suzuka actually, this should be one of the best circuits for us."
The confusion on the issues in Singapore stole the spotlight in the press conference, with questions flying in about what the conclusions have been since the race, but the Red Bull driver gave an honest response, explaining that: "We obviously have some good ideas on how we prepared the weekend and the misinformation we had and where things went wrong but obviously it's something that we will keep internally. There are some good indications that we probably approached the weekend with the wrong setup."
Competitiveness back for Suzuka
It became apparent early in the weekend that Red Bull wasn't going to be at the same level we expected them to be at and Perez explains how the normal 'competitiveness' was there in the race, but still nowhere near what's needed. "Once you are in the traffic, you're driven by traffic. In Singapore, it's impossible to know and obviously taking the tyres to the maximum life being on the different strategy to everyone else, to the optimal strategy. I think we were more competitive in the race than we were in qualifying. But still, we were not that competitive."
Finally, the Mexican gave some hope to Red Bull fans saying that the simulator "felt good. It felt bad in Singapore already so hopefully it aligns well and it can be a good track for us."