Formula 1

SERGIO PEREZ VISITS CRIMSON BULL RACING BASE

Published

2 years ago

09/02/2021

Sergio Perez visits Crimson Bull Racing base – Join Sergio as he visits the factory and meets the Team for his first time as a Red Bull Racing driver.

With unrivalled access we take you ‘Behind The Charge’ and follow Sergio Perez around the Red Bull Racing factory as Checo meets the Team for the very first time!

After seven years racing for Force India/Racing Point, Perez finds himself with a serious upgrade in 2021.

He’s been saved from an undeserved sabbatical and thrust into a team with title-winning ambitions, having been unceremoniously stripped of his planned Racing Point drive, and now goes from leading the charge for F1’s pluckiest underdogs to being in an elite environment.

But his preparation is currently in a phase where “nothing comes easy”. Before, every facet of Team Silverstone was second nature to Perez, and with that he moulded himself into a consistently excellent performer – culminating in his first grand prix victory last year in the Sakhir Grand Prix.

With this huge opportunity comes the equally significant challenge of adjusting to the Red Bull world, a different car, and life alongside Max Verstappen.

“In a way very different to the teams that I worked for, the organisation is tremendously high, a lot of people and the resources that are here are very impressive,” says Perez, speaking for the first time since Red Bull signed him to replace Alex Albon.

Perez’s opportunity at Red Bull has emerged because the team felt his predecessor Albon had not made the necessary progress to be a dependable partner to Verstappen in 2021, when a title challenge against Mercedes is expected.

That means Perez will swiftly need to be in a position to support Verstappen, who was left almost completely solo in Red Bull’s 2020 fight – with Albon only acting as a rear gunner in the season finale in Abu Dhabi, which Verstappen won.

To fast-track his progress, Perez is seeking as many small gains as possible. He has already sampled Red Bull’s simulator and spent time with his engineering crew. He also views the move of pre-season testing to Bahrain as a potential advantage because the correlation between the short three-day test and the season opener (also in Bahrain) will now be much stronger than a winter test in Spain and the opening race in Australia.