Red Bull’s Sergio Perez explained that brake issues prevented him from slowing the car adequately for corners, resulting in his early elimination from Q1 at his home Grand Prix in Mexico City.
Bewildered by the sudden issues, the “home hero” described Saturday’s performance as occurring at the “worst possible time.”
Finishing only 18th, marking his fifth Q1 exit of the season, “Checo” now finds himself in a difficult position, with his future in 2025 still uncertain.
“I’ve been struggling quite a bit with braking. Every time I try attack the braking, I just put too much energy through the tyres and that makes it very tricky for me to stop the car.”
“It’s been there for the last three races where I cannot stop the car. I’m having to modulate my braking quite a lot and that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment. It’s mainly on the straight line I cannot stop the car.” – He noted.
Brake issues also caused significant sliding when attacking corners, making it difficult for Perez’s RB20 to maintain cornering speed.
Unable to address these issues over the weekend, Perez pessimistically stated that there is little hope for a “comeback” in Sunday’s showdown.
“It’s going to be hard because it’s also present there in the long run, so I will try everything. I will try and see what we are able to do with the team and see what solutions we are able to find.”