F1 News
No excuse for Perez at Red Bull: 'Won't cause gap to Verstappen'
Red Bull Racing engineer Paul Monaghan admits Sergio Perez is on a different specification to his teammate Max Verstappen, but he dismisses it as an excuse for the difference between the two drivers. The Mexican driver had another terrible weekend in Mexico, and the Austrian team have changed his chassis to boost his confidence.
Perez is contracted to drive for Red Bull in 2025, but there is growing doubt about his future. He has been off the pace compared to his teammate Verstappen, and hasn't finished on the podium since race five in China. Red Bull have young talents such as Liam Lawson and Yuki Tsunoda waiting in the wings, and GPblog learned earlier in the week that Perez may be driving his last Grand Prix for Red Bull Racing in Brazil.
One of the reasons suggested for the performance delta was a different specification. Engineer Monaghan admitted this was true, but doesn't expect that to be used as an excuse.
Has Perez got a different specification to Verstappen?
"Well, they're all kind of hybrids, aren't they? So, Checo [Sergio Perez] is on a different edge specification from Max [Verstappen]. So, if you look at the edge wing itself, it's suddenly different. It's a small difference. The magnitude is, I would argue, small enough that it's not going to cause him to have a significant difference to Max. We've done it like that, purely and simply, because it's the best way to service two cars and ensure that we can service them fairly with space," Monaghan said.
"We've changed him back into a different chassis, which we can do, and he asked if we can, and the boys got a bit of work that they didn't like," Monaghan stressed before confirming it's a used chassis. "We don't make a new one at this point in the season, I can assure you," he concluded in Brazil.