Perez reassures Red Bull fans: 'It's expected'

Sergio Perez hopes to come close to Max Verstappen's performance in his second season at Red Bull Racing. On Thursday, he was given the opportunity in Barcelona to get used to his new car to prepare for the new Formula 1 year.

The Mexican managed to complete 78 laps with the Austrian racing team on Thursday, giving them a lot of data. However, he also had to deal with problems with his gearbox, which caused him to stop for a while. Nevertheless, Perez looked back on the day with a positive feeling afterwards.

"We took some good learnings from today and I’m pleased with that," he stressed in a press release. "We are trying some very different things and we have a lot of information to work through, so I think in the meetings it is important to go in-depth and give the engineers as much feedback as possible."

Perez gives clarity on problems

Verstappen's teammate also addressed the problems earlier in the day. "The issue with the gearbox took a little bit longer to fix than we expected, but it is fine, it’s expected that these things happen at testing. I’ll be back in the car tomorrow and I hope the weather stays dry."