Sergio Perez insists that Red Bull Formula 1 team-mate Max Verstappen wouldn’t have beaten Ferrari to the win in the Australian Grand Prix without his retirement.
Verstappen lined up on pole and was aiming to match his record of 10 consecutive victories, but his race ended after four laps due to a right rear brake problem.
The Dutchman revealed that the “stuck” brake was prevalent from the outset, enabling Sainz to close and pass the Red Bull with DRS into Turn 9 on the second lap.
Sainz would proceed to dominate proceedings to lead a Ferrari 1-2, with Perez adamant even Verstappen would have been powerless to stop the Italian marque.
When asked whether Ferrari would have triumphed without Verstappen’s involvement being curtailed, Perez told Sky F1: “Absolutely.
“I think just as a team, we just didn’t have the pace today. We didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend.
“We were struggling already from Friday and we never got on top of the management of tyres.”
Perez had qualified third but was demoted three places for impeding Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas and struggled to climb the order in the race, finishing an eventual fifth.
He addressed that degradation proved to be a sticking point for Red Bull’s RB20 car, which was exacerbated on a front-limited track such as the Albert Park Circuit.
“We were struggling early on, we could see that Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us,” he explained.
“I think we just couldn’t get the balance in a window. And there is some work to do for the coming races.
“We already saw last year in a track like this – for example, Las Vegas a front-limited track – Ferrari was a lot stronger than us so we just couldn’t look after the front tyres.”
Alongside his three-place grid drop, Perez’s attempts to make up ground on Verstappen were hampered when George Russell overtook him on the opening lap.
The Mexican’s extended wait to overtake the Mercedes saw him lose vital ground to the front runners, leaving Perez unable to close on the McLaren drivers ahead.
“Yeah, the race would have looked a little bit different to how it looked, because basically the first stint we just [got stuck] behind Russell,” he recalled.
“Losing the place to him was very damaging and, yeah… just a very bad weekend. Plenty of understanding for us to do.”
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