Teammate Max Verstappen spent a perfect weekend with pole position on Saturday and race victory on Sunday. On the other hand, for Sergio Pérez, a series of misfortunes continued after a crash in qualifying with a retirement to race at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. cause of problems? Transmission was clearly to blame for the Mexican’s misfortune. Seven laps after the start, ‘Checo’s work day came to an early end.
Bankruptcy, Bad luck and Perez
“Probably a consequential damage from yesterday,” suspects Dr. Helmut Marko, head of motorsport at Red Bull. The gearbox was at the end of term, but should still be running. Perez applied the wrong brakes in the second half of qualifying on Saturday and rammed his car into a TechPro barrier. Silver lining on the horizon? According to team boss Christian Horner, the Mexican’s engine is fine. Perez currently owns two of the three permitted combustion engines. There is no starting place penalty for the other components as well.
“Reliability failures hurt a lot,” Perez lamented after parking his car. This season more than ever because you can fight for world championship with competitive car. The new rules will force teams to go to the limit, with the Red Bull driver trying to explain the many failures caused by technical problems. Bouncing also plays a role.
Perez: Hard to digest No points
Perez saw great potential in his car, speeded up the tires and tried to catch up. The RB18 had a good pace in the race, but after starting 13th, ‘Checo’ struggled to overtake the other, usually slower cars. “It’s a shame, but with Leclerc you saw how difficult it is to go through traffic with a top car,” Marko said. Monegasse started from position 19 and was temporarily stuck in a DRS train. Despite a poor pit stop, Leclerc eventually moved up to fifth.
Mexican World Cup dream quickly shattered?
Of course, zero points in the race doesn’t bode well for Sergio Pérez’s world championship hopes. After his victory in Monaco, Perez was already traded as some potential world champion and competition for Verstappen. The Mexican himself also dreams of the title: “If you are fighting for the world championship, one failure can cost you a lot.” In the first interview just after the race, Perez seemed clearly disappointed and also suffered a minor neck injury in Saturday’s crash.
Verstappen is currently in first place in the drivers’ standings with 175 points, Sergio Pérez is second on 129 points despite his retirement, 49 points behind his teammate and 3 ahead of Charles Leclerc. For Silverstone, the car should do well if the Mexican is hoping for a good weekend with no problems.
46 points behind, that’s almost 2 race wins (or failures), but Max Verstappen was 44 points ahead of Hamilton before last year’s Silverstone weekend. Two races later, the Mercedes driver was 12 points ahead of the Dutchman. The season is long and with 9 out of 22 races there is still plenty of room for dreams.
