Perez hopeful: 'Understanding where reliability problems came from'

The start of the season has not gone the way Red Bull Racing envisioned. Not only does the RB18 seem slower than the Ferrari car, especially the lack of reliability worries the Austrian racing team. For the weekend at Imola, all problems should be solved and so Sergio Perez is full of confidence.

In the press conference, broadcast by Sky Sports, prior to the first free practice session at the Italian circuit, the Mexican driver let it be known that after the Australian Grand Prix, in which Max Verstappen crashed out for the second time this year, extensive research was done and that all problems should now be solved.

Reliability Red Bull in order?

"All the reliability problems we had, we now understand [and have been solved]. So hopefully we won't experience any more surprises," said Perez, who knows that the Emilia Romagna GP is very important. If Ferrari now runs out of tens of points again, a world title will be very far out of sight. "We have to make sure we can collect the points...because so far it has been extremely painful."

Perez will keep good memories of Imola. Last season he managed to beat Verstappen in qualifying. It was immediately the only time the 32-year-old driver managed to beat his Dutch teammate on his own on Saturday. The other time was in Russia, but then Verstappen did not set a serious time because of grid penalties.

About the gap towards Ferrari, he further says: "I have the feeling we are close. In Melbourne, they were two steps ahead of us, but we know what happened and how we can improve."