Brake issues leave Perez stranded 18th on grid in “worst place”

Sergio Perez will start his home race in Mexico City from a disastrous 18^th place after struggling with a braking issue throughout qualifying.

Perez acknowledged that it was “the worst place” for it happen and that it was “super disappointing.” It also came at the worst possible time given the momentum behind Liam Lawson.

The Red Bull driver beat only Esteban Ocon and Zhou Guanyu in Q1, setting a time that was 0.8s off team mate Max Verstappen in the same session. Perez said he’s had similar brake problems for several races.

“I’ve been struggling quite a bit with braking,” he said. “Every time I try to brake and attack the braking, I just put too much energy through the tyres, and that makes it very, very tricky for me to stop the car.”

“It’s been there for the last three races, where I cannot stop the car. I’m having to modulate quite a lot my braking, and that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment.”

He added: “It’s mainly on the straight line, the issue that we’re facing. It’s mainly on the straight line. I just slide too much. And given that it’s all surface sensitivity here, it makes it a lot harder.”

Perez expects it to still be a problem in Sunday’s race

“It’s going to be hard because it’s also present there in the long runs,” he said. “So I will try everything. I will try and see what we are able to do with the team, and see what solutions we are able to find.”

Asked by this writer if a change of setup and a pitlane start was an option he said: “We will discuss all the options. The problem is that we also very tight on parts that we have available.

“We don’t have the spec of floor that we would like to go on to. I don’t know, we will discuss it for sure with the team.”

Reflecting on another frustrating home race he said: “It’s obviously the worst place for me for it to happen. It’s super disappointing. But still, there are four races to go, and we have to get on top of it as a team.

“And I hope tomorrow we can enter to the points, but it’s going to be a very difficult weekend.”