Perez says Red Bull need to ‘understand where pace has gone’

Sergio Perez was left with mixed feelings in the wake of the Dutch Grand Prix after coming home sixth to his team mate’s second.

While he felt positive about his own performance, the Mexican conceded that Red Bull were ‘discouraged’ by McLaren’s pace in the Netherlands, with Lando Norris winning the race by over 20 seconds.

The pressure has been on Perez to perform after a string of lacklustre weekends, with two seventh place finishes before the break marking a bit of an upturn in form. With qualifying his Achilles’ heel, Perez made it to Q3 on Saturday and started a credible fifth – not a bad result considering McLaren’s superiority at this track.

The race didn’t get off to a good start though, with Perez squeezed into sixth by Charles Leclerc. And although he initially managed to stay with the Ferrari, he soon started to drop back, unable to keep up with the scarlet car.

ZANDVOORT, NETHERLANDS - AUGUST 25: Sergio Perez of Mexico driving the (11) Oracle Red Bull Racing — Perez couldn't keep the faster Ferrari of Sainz at bay in Zandvoort

“I think it was, in terms of weekend progression, it has been a solid one,” he said afterwards. “But I was very disappointed with the pace we had today in the race, it was something we were not expecting to have.

“I thought we were going to be a lot closer to the McLaren. Ferrari were a massive surprise and obviously McLaren. Yeah, plenty of stuff to understand… It was discouraging to see what McLaren can do today.”

Perez did manage to get ahead of George Russell’s Mercedes, somewhat helped by his rival opting for a late change to a two-stop strategy. But he then lost out to the recovering Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, with Red Bull quite possibly only the third fastest car in Zandvoort.

“In the beginning things were looking really good, but we just didn’t have the pace to keep up, as the other cars started to pull ahead," Perez added. "We were struggling with the grip on the hard tyre and balance all race.

“We have a lot of work to do, but it has been a good weekend in terms of understanding the car issues and we can go forward to take this as the base and to develop from here.

Perez: P6 in Zandvoort 'solid' despite being 'very disappointed with the pace'

“We will keep our heads down and be fully focused on getting to the bottom of our issues, we’ve got a lot of work to do to understand where the pace has gone, especially in the race, so hopefully we can get back up to speed in Monza next week."

Sixth was Perez’s best result since he finished fourth in Miami, and he remains without a podium since China. But with the Mexican saying his understanding of what was causing all his issues is there, he sounded more positive than he has since the beginning of the season regarding his own form.

HIGHLIGHTS: Catch the action from the Dutch Grand Prix as Norris beats Verstappen to victory with stunning drive

The bad news though is that with McLaren closing the gap in the constructors’, Red Bull need some big scores to shut down the threat the papaya team boast – and that means Perez needs to start finishing on the podium again.

But does he have the car to do so? That is the big question heading into Monza next weekend.