Perez uses Verstappen's settings so as not to get lost

 The new driver in the ranks of the Red Bull team in Formula 1 Sergio Perez admitted before the start of the weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix that he uses the settings of his teammate Max Verstappen while still getting used to the car of the Bulls.

The Mexican has spent the last seven years with Force India / Racing Point but lost his place in Silverstone to four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel. He was later recruited to Milton Keynes, where they desperately needed a replacement for Alex Alban after the Thai's unsatisfactory performance against Verstappen.

Perez will need five races to fully adapt to the Red Bull team

Perez's adaptation to a car with a completely different concept from that of Racing Point was further complicated by the shortest pre-season tests in the history of the sport, which lasted only three days. In them, he was behind the wheel of the RB16B for only a day and a half, which is not enough to adapt to the characteristics of the car. For this reason, the Mexican relies on the settings of his teammate, so as not to get lost in their refinement, which can cost him much more.

"I come up with the idea that I have to adapt to the car first. We have such limited track time this year, with shorter tests, shorter Friday workouts, that everything happens very quickly. It is very difficult to do the work as before when we had more time in training. Now you have literally two outings on the track and the day is over.

Perez is changing his driving style because of the Red Bull car

"At the same time, I have very solid starting points in Max's face. He removes 110% of the car from the first workout until the end of Sunday. So I think I should first get as close as possible to its level, and then start playing with the settings. It doesn't make sense to do something different because otherwise I will get lost, "Perez commented.

In his first three starts with Red Bull, the Mexican recorded a fourth, fifth and 11th place, as well as a first row, start during the Grand Prix of Emilia-Romagna at Imola.

This article was created using the online case converter tool.

 Red Bull driver in Formula 1 Max Verstappen said before the start of the weekend for the Spanish Grand Prix that the sport needs a better solution to the problem of track restrictions.

Since the start of the 2021 season, the interpretations of the track borders have repeatedly come under the scrutiny of fans, drivers and teams, the most commented moment being the battle for victory between Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton in the Bahrain Grand Prix. Then the Dutchman passed in front of his competitor, but left the outlines of the route at the exit of the fourth turn and was forced to return the position, after which he never managed to make another successful attack. The problem was not so much in overtaking Verstappen, but in the fact that during the race Hamilton was spotted extending the same curve in an identical way at least 29 times, which according to various calculations gave him between 5 and 7 seconds, but this went unpunished by side of the judges.

Imola did not have many problems due to the presence of many security zones with gravel, but in Portugal a week ago there were several controversial moments, and again they were to the detriment of Verstappen. At Portimao, the Red Bull driver lost his fastest lap in the race and the corresponding bonus point for it, due to a slight departure from the outline of the 14th turn, and the same happened in qualifying when Verstappen lost the pole position due to the same violation in another part of the route.

Immediately after the race a week ago, Motorsport Advisor Dr. Helmut Marco said his team had lost a victory, the fastest lap and pole position in the first three laps due to inconsistent interpretations of the track boundaries. The same opinion was shared by the team leader Christian Horner, who believes that Sergio Perez lost his chances for something more than his fourth place in Portugal after he was initially overtaken by Lando Norris when the McLaren driver was off the track, but this was left without consequences.

During a press conference before the weekend in Catalonia, Verstappen noted that it would be difficult to unify the curbs on all tracks, due to the need for them to host other championships, but he believes that some compromise must be found.

"I think we need to find a solution. I understand that we share some tracks with MotoGP, and there we need different curbs from the ones we want. However, I believe that a compromise solution can be found that works for everyone. With our cornering speeds, we can use the entire track because of our pressure levels, and this makes it difficult to track boundaries. From my point of view, we should try to return the gravel near the outer edges of the tracks. However, this is not desired by the track managers, because sometimes people rent the tracks, go out and scatter gravel on the track and it has to be cleaned, and that costs money.

This article was created using the online case converter tool.

Sir Lewis defended his teammate Botas

 

Seven-time Formula One world champion Sir Lewis Hamilton has stood firmly behind his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Botas after the Finn drew much criticism for his poor performance since the start of the 2021 season.

While the Briton has two wins and one-second place on his account in the first three starts of the campaign, the co-driver of the "Black Arrows" has only two third places and one elimination. In the qualifiers, the Finn is also behind his teammate in his rankings, so far he has one pole position in Portugal and one third and eighth place in the previous two starts, and the Briton has not started outside the front row so far.

It was these weaker-than-normal performances of Botas that gave rise to rumors in the British media that he could be replaced by Williams driver George Russell before the end of the season. Despite them, the Finn expressed his opinion that he will not be replaced, as such things are done "only in one team, and he is not a Mercedes." A little later, his teammate expressed his opinion, in which he fully supports Botas.

Botas does not think he will be replaced by Russell before the end of the season

"From what I've experienced in my work with Walter, he's a great teammate, as I've said before. To be honest, I think we have the best pilot pair from several points of view. However, this will change someday, I will not be here forever, he will not be here forever, but for now, I think that we have shown the necessary results over and over the years and we continue to do so. Valtteri was in pole position last week, and this is only the fourth race. I think people should give him some freedom and let him focus on his work, "said Hamilton before the start of the fourth weekend of the year in Spain.

He and Botas have expiring contracts at the end of the 2021 season, as does Russell, who is part of Mercedes' young driver development program.

This article was created using the online case converter tool.