Perez not hoping for repeat of Australia: 'Remains in back of mind'

Sergio Perez had a mediocre weekend in Australia. He completely lost his rhythm in the third practice session and did not recover in qualifying, although he said it was due to problems. The Red Bull Racing driver had to start from the back and eventually finished fifth. Perez is not too worried about a repeat of Melbourne.

"It obviously stays in the back of your mind, but you have to reset yourself and move on from that. I think there were many specific issues we had all that day. It was a really horrible day on Saturday in FP3 and qualifying. Really bad, but I think we understood a lot of the problems that we had. It wasn't just a single problem that would be really easy to just get rid of. It was a combination of a few things that caused us have this problem," Perez told Baku, where GPBlog are present.

At the press conference, he tells GPblog and others that he hopes the issues are now definitely a thing of the past. "Hopefully we don't get to see that again. You don't want to see that, especially here in Baku." The Mexican himself has good memories of Azerbaijan. He won there on behalf of Red Bull in 2021 and last year he finished second. In 2018, he finished on the podium for Force India/Racing Point.

Perez over four-week stop

For the past four weeks, the premier class of motorsport has enjoyed a four-week break. Has that allowed the competition to creep closer to Red Bull? Perez thinks so. He argues that break came at an unfavourable time.

"Yes, certainly. Of course, when you are in a strong position, you just want to keep going and don't let others close up the gap. But of course everyone is working flat out and we're also doing the same. So we're not taking anything for granted. So hopefully we're bringing some upgrades here and we hopefully are able to keep on top," he concludes.