Sergio Perez didn’t shine under the lights of Las Vegas. He was eliminated in Q1 once again, apparently due to a lack of grip he had suffered throughout the whole weekend.
For the sixth time in 2024, the Mexican driver didn’t make it out of Q1 and was only
able to put his Red Bull in P16. It was surely a disappointing result for him, as his teammate Max Verstappen qualified fifth despite the outfit’s struggles.
Perez lamented a lack of grip throughout the entire weekend, which resulted in him being unable to extract the maximum performance out of the car.
“It was mainly the whole weekend I’ve been struggling quite a lot with the grip,” Perez admitted. “It’s just really difficult to put the lap together with the amount of sliding and with the tires, not making it work, that’s been the most difficult one.
“I did expect a very difficult qualifying and yeah it turned out to be a tough one.”
Perez has been struggling compared to Verstappen since there is “a fundamental issue” with the car that doesn’t allow him to perform up to his and the team’s standards. Even though they keep working to make it better, it is not that easy to make it work.
“I think we’ve got a fundamental issue at the moment with the car that is just not working for me” and that “at the moment we come to the weekends and we just explore a lot of things – it’s just a difficult one to make it work.”
Not all hope is lost, however, as the Mexican believes Red Bull can perform better on Sunday, as Friday’s race pace simulation looked better.
“There’s a long race ahead, a lot of things will happen, and I believe we will be more competitive come race day,” he said.
“Yesterday we looked a lot better over the long race than over a single lap.”