Perez not jealous of Verstappen: 'Clearly a different car'

In Formula 1, nothing stays secret. When Max Verstappen does a test at the Imola circuit with the '22 RB18, it leaks out. On Wednesday, the Red Bull Racing driver drove his laps on the Italian track in preparation for the Spanish Grand Prix. His teammate Sergio Perez was not present in Imola, while the Mexican was supposed to be just the person who could use extra kilometres.

Paul Monaghan, Red Bull Racing's chief engineer, explained earlier this weekend why it had been chosen to let Verstappen do some test kilometres in an old car. "When you list the strengths and weaknesses of a car, you only have the current car as reference material. Now we could compare better with previous years," he said.

Perez only in the simulator

Perez in particular, who has been struggling with his form in recent weeks, seems to be looking for clues, which could have made an extra test useful for him. When asked, the Mexican in Barcelona reveals that he is not jealous of Verstappen, who was thus allowed to put in the kilometres in the car. "It's obviously a very different car in many regards," Perez said, seeming to indicate that he was not bothered that he had to make do with extra sessions in the simulator.

"But we have a triple header at the moment. I think we just need to focus on that at the moment, and we will definitely talk about some situations going forward. How we can improve basically our performance through the weekend. Evolution through the weekend is what we need."

This article was written in collaboration with Olly Darcy