Two-time Grand Prix winner Sergio Perez is almost halfway through his first season at Red Bull. It has been a mixed bag for the Mexican, with the highs of Baku and Paul Ricard cancelled out by errors at Imola and in the sprint race at Silverstone. Checo sits P5 in the standings, 91 points adrift of Lewis Hamilton. 

Despite over 200 starts in Formula 1, Perez admits that driving and trying to get used to the RB16B feels like a change of category after spending seven seasons at Force India/Racing Point. 

“The way you extract the lap time in this car, the way you are fighting when you are in dirty air, compared to what I was used to do, and how you drive the races, is very different,” said Perez to Motorsport.com. 

“Plus, it’s how you look after the tyres. Every car has different requirements of rim heating, and rim cooling, with very specific details as everything is linked to the tyres. 

“So it's just a different world, to be honest. It’s like I've changed category to be very honest. It's just a different category.” 

After getting dropped by Racing Point for Sebastian Vettel in 2020, Perez took Alex Albon’s seat at Red Bull for the 2021 season. 

While Perez concedes it’s a fantastic opportunity and to be in a team fighting for the championship, he’s still learning a lot with his new team and trying to learn to get the best from the car.  

“It's a massive opportunity, but yeah I also am aware that I have changed a lot the philosophy,” said Perez. 

“I went from one team to a very different team in terms of how the car achieved the lap time, and it's been harder than expected, changing teams, you know, especially coming to a team that is already fighting for the championship. 

“It's great to be in a team that is fighting for the championship but, at the same time, it's difficult because you don't have that adaptation that when you are fighting for the championship you're fully engaged with the car. I didn't have chance to do that. 

“I'm just learning a lot, you know, from the car, and from the team. I came to a very different team philosophy, engine and car, so I’m just getting on with it and, with time and just improving, things are getting better. 

“But it is not an easy process and still it's an ongoing process. Coming into a new structure, a structure like Red Bull, it's very big, and it's not easy to find your feet. But it's getting there.” 

Aside from looking consistently strong throughout the Baku weekend which ultimately led to his first win with the team, the Mexican driver has tended to be quite a long way off Verstappen through practice sessions and confesses it’s taking too much time to get up to speed at a lot of the circuits.  

“I'm still needing a lot of time when we go to a new circuit,” he says. “I take like the whole Friday to be there in qualifying, and that is just chipping away through qualifying. Then it's just too late when you have such a deficit through Friday. 

“Eventually I get there, but it just takes me too much time to get on top of that.” 

Max Verstappen’s ability to wring the best out of a car that is tricky to drive is well-known after 2019 and 2020, and Perez admits that the 2021 challenger has a very narrow window as well.  

“I'd say it's a faster car, but just the way you extract the lap time is very different,'' said Perez. 

“At the end of the day, all F1 cars come very close together, but it's just the way you extract the maximum lap time from each car that is very different. And I went to a car that is very different. 

“I find that with the Red Bull car, you have a very narrow window, where it operates. It is very important to stay in that window because if you go out of it, it might feel a bit more comfortable but it’s not necessarily a faster car. So I think it's a lot of me adapting to the car.” 

With 11 races now under his belt at Red Bull Racing for the 12-time podium finisher, he fully expects himself and the team to get stronger after the summer break as they continue to understand each other better.  

“It is just growing that knowledge together, and it will become very natural,” he said. 

“At the moment is not natural yet, but it will get there. I assume that already this year, in the second half of the season, I will be there and we will be pretty strong. 

“I will just get stronger and we as a team are going to get stronger.”