Sergio Perez says that he is hopeful to avoid any more reliability issues this year after Red Bull’s unsteady start to the 2022 Formula 1 season.
Both Perez and team-mate Max Verstappen retired suddenly from the season-opening race in Bahrain last month in the dying stages of the grand prix.
At the third round in Australia, Verstappen retired again from the race while on course for a podium finish, while Red Bull’s sister team AlphaTauri have also suffered from issues across the opening four rounds of the campaign.
Speaking ahead of the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix last weekend, Red Bull team boss Christian Horner said that it had “found and resolved” Verstappen’s issue from Melbourne.
Perez is hopeful that the team will not face any more complications as it focuses on its title fight for the 2022 season.
“First of all what gives us hope is that all the issues, all the reliability problems we’ve had we understood them and we were able to fix them,” Perez said.
“So from now on, hopefully, there are no more surprises. Something unexpected can happen still, but we feel like we’ve come on top of them.
“That will be critical for us on our side, you know, as a team to make sure we are able to collect the points where we are able to get weekend by weekend because so far it’s been extremely painful.”
Last time out at Imola, Red Bull claimed its first 1-2 finish in almost six years, with Verstappen heading Perez at the line.
Red Bull currently sits second in the Constructors’ Championship, 11 points down on leaders Ferrari.
Porsche’s going to insist upon Vettel. Sergio’s days are numbered.