The Red Bull drivers gave different views of how serious a threat rivals Ferrari are after the first day of practice for the Australian Grand Prix.
Sergio Perez’s day went according to schedule but he was concerned about how quickly his tyres faded during a long run in second practice.
“Overall I think we’ve got some work to do,” he told the official F1 channel. “The degradation wasn’t great on that long run, so there’s some work to do and go from there.”
Perez endured a poor weekend at the track 12 months ago but feels he is in better shape this year. “I think we are in a good place,” he said. “So we should be looking strong for tomorrow.”
However after seeing Charles Leclerc set the fastest time of the today, Perez warned Ferrari look “quite strong” in Melbourne. “I think this track seems to be better for them.
“They’ve been quite strong also in the long run. So I think they will be quite a challenge to beat this weekend.”
Red Bull finished first and second in the opening races of 2024 but Perez predicted a stronger challenge from Ferrari this weekend. “I think they’re generally quite fast,” he said, “so that will be interesting.”
His team mate Max Verstappen is less concerned by the threat from Ferrari, despite losing time in the second practice session after damaging his floor by going off track.
“Unfortunately it was a little bit messy because of what happened in FP1,” he said. “I went wide, damaged the floor and also the chassis.
“It took a little bit long to to fix that, unfortunately, so I lost like 20 minutes. But I do think the turnaround was very quick, what we did as a team. So I more or less completed the program still. I would have like maybe a few more laps, but with missing 20 minutes that’s how it goes.”
After lapping three-tenths of a second slower than Leclerc, Verstappen admitted the Ferrari “is quick” but said Red Bull have pace in hand. “From our side I think there are also a few more things that we can fine-tune. So nothing crazy, nothing worrying, I think just need to fine-tune a little bit the car.”
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2024 Australian Grand Prix
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