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'I cannot stop the car' - Perez after Mexico City Q1 exit
Sergio Perez says he is struggling with braking in his Red Bull after dropping out in Q1 at the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Qualifying saw the home favorite eliminated in 18th place despite three attempts to make it through, as he was some 0.2s away from advancing. Perez has been finding the going difficult throughout the weekend so far, and says a braking issue is holding him back that Red Bull has been unable to solve so far.
“I’m been struggling quite a bit with braking,” Perez said. “Every time I try to brake and attack the braking, I just put too much energy through the tires, and that makes it very tricky for me to stop the car.
“The last three races ... I cannot stop the car. I’m having to modulate my braking [quite a lot], and that’s something we can see in the data, but we are not able to fix it at the moment.
“It’s mainly on a straight line, the issue that we’re facing. I cannot stop the car … I just slide too much. Given that it’s all surface sensitivity here, it makes it a lot harder.”
Starting from the penultimate row on a circuit where track position can be important due to overheating, Perez admits he’s braced for a difficult Sunday because the problem is not solely one that he has in qualifying.
“It’s going to be harder, because it’s also present there in the long runs," he said. "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.
“We will discuss all the options. It probably means, we are also very tight on parts that we have available. We don’t have the spec of floor that we would like to go onto. I don’t know, we will discuss for sure with the team.
“It’s obviously very disappointing. If there’s a grand prix I want to do really well, it’s this one. Unfortunately it’s been really difficult and tricky, this event.”
Chris Medland
While studying Sports Journalism at the University of Central Lancashire, Chris managed to talk his way into working at the British Grand Prix in 2008 and was retained for three years before joining ESPN F1 as Assistant Editor. After three further years at ESPN, a spell as F1 Editor at Crash Media Group was followed by the major task of launching F1i.com’s English-language website and running it as Editor. Present at every race since the start of 2014, he has continued building his freelance portfolio, working with international titles. As well as writing for RACER, his broadcast work includes television appearances on F1 TV and as a presenter and reporter on North America's live radio coverage on SiriusXM.
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