Perez feels better prepared to get on top of Red Bull’s new RB20

Although he finished the 2023 season as runner-up in the F1 championship, Perez had a campaign to forget in many regards, 290 points off team-mate Max Verstappen and bereft of any victories in the last 18 rounds after missing out on Q3 no fewer than nine times.

Matters were not helped by him feeling less and less comfortable with the RB19 as the season progressed.

“We had some issues as the car was developing,” the Mexican explained.

“And the way we were trying to improve those issues meant that we were just taking performance out of the car, and not necessarily going faster. Making it more comfortable is not necessarily faster.”

“Qatar, Japan, was the lowest point of the season, where we understood a lot of things.”

Efforts made on the simulator before the United States Grand Prix unlocked a better approach for Perez, and he thinks that understanding will carry through to better help him cope with what’s needed for Red Bull’s 2024 challenger.

“With the learning of last year, it’s very important that we learn what went wrong, learn from our mistakes,” he said.

“I think we understood a lot of things. It’s my fourth year with Red Bull, and I do expect to be at my best for this year.

“[We worked] on understanding the difficult races, why they were so difficult, the directions we were taking with the car, how we were overcompensating things and not necessarily making the car better. I think all of that we managed to learn.”

The new RB20, which was unveiled by Red Bull on Thursday, therefore gives Perez some optimism for the campaign ahead, with the veteran pleased about “good stats on the simulator”.

One area in particular has been improved compared to last year’s dominant RB19, according to the six-time grand prix winner: “Essentially our low-speed seems to be looking in a better window, but obviously until we hit the track we will not know.”

Perez will now seek more consistency in the upcoming campaign, with a view to “maximise every single opportunity to get a really strong base early on. And just be able to carry that through to the whole season and, you know, be able to develop through the season.”