F1 | Styrian GP | Sergio Perez’s lost podium didn’t lose his faith in his team: “We attacked at the maximum and we gave the best.”.
Red Bull won the first home race of this season with Verstappen but Perez arrived only fourth, losing the podium by a nose. Yet, the Mexican carries “positive sensations” with him and feels ready to get more in the next race, just a few days away
The Styrian Grand Prix ended with a bittersweet result for Red Bull. The Austrian team did obtain an excellent result, with Max Verstappen’s win on the home GP but with a bittersweet result for Sergio Perez, who missed the podium for a heartbeat and finished fourth. A slow first stop lost him track position to Bottas.
The first question for the Mexican deals with his own impression of the Grand Prix, especially the final part of the first stint, in which Perez lost pace to Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas.
“I think that the soft tyres’ reactions were quite unexpected this race. We had a very slow stint and there were also vibrations in the end. We attacked Bottas all the way through and then we tried something different with the two stops. I think it was a little unfortunate for the traffic in that place but we lacked one lap. I’m happy for the team, because Max won the race and I got some points. We will try our best next week.”
The strategy didn’t work out, the media told Perez. “Yeah, that’s a pity – he replied – those tyres worked worse than expected and I lost much time but we gave our best to get the position back but it wasn’t enough”
''We thought we were going to catch him in the last lap but it didn’t happen.” he added.
“It wasn’t the race we hoped for – he then added, relieving the tension and talking in Spanish – I lost time in the beginning with Norris but then it all went good enough but the problem has been the degradation of the tyres and the traffic.”
How did he analyse the race?
“We lost the position to Bottas, and that’s not good, but we will be there the next weekend”.
He mentioned the next weekend, but there only are few days to prepare for the next race. “I think we’ll have to recover all the energy and come back stronger because we had a good pace on this lap.”
Was this race result positive in the end?
“Yes, it was positive, - the Mexican said – we tried our very best, we are where we supposed to be and all the weekend can only be very positive.”
¡Somos un equipo muy unido! Ganamos y perdemos juntos siempre...
— Sergio Pérez (@SChecoPerez) June 27, 2021
¡Hoy fallamos en la parada, pero regresaremos más fuertes en 7 días! #styriangp
We’re a very united team! We always win and lose together.
We had a bad pit stop, but we’ll be back stronger in 7 days!#nevergiveup pic.twitter.com/l4JqudjEQc
Then he was asked if he was disappointed with the last stint.
“We attacked at the maximum and we gave the best. Usually we are very fast and that what matters”.
The next question was simple but hard: what made him lose the race and if he brings with himself only positive sensations of this week.
“Sometimes you don’t lose much. – the Red Bull driver replies - The guys have been fantastic and they worked very well in these last races. Yes, in the end there are only positive things coming from this weekend.”
One last question: does Perez think that he could improve a bit during qualifying and score a faster lap?
“Yes, I think that there is a lot I can do here and I look forward to it”.
