“He was losing four tenths on the straight,” Helmut Marko reveals the problems with Sergio Perez’s RB18 in Miami


“He was losing four tenths on the straight,” Helmut Marko reveals the problems with Sergio Perez’s RB18 in Miami

Helmut Marko and Sergio Perez

Miami GP was an overall success for Red Bull, but there seems to be some dissatisfaction in the camp as they missed on a successive double podium finish, after achieving it early two weeks back. And for this failure, the problem in Sergio Perez’s car can be held guilty.

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The Mexican was flying and closing in on Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz when he went from a gap of under two seconds to over seven seconds in just a single lap. He reported power loss, causing a horrible loss to the pace, which reminded the Red Bull fans of the horror of three power failures this season that has already damaged the team’s early contention of the team and its drivers.

Helmut Marko, the team’s chief advisor, addressing the problem with Sergio Perez’s car, said“We had a problem with his car with a sensor. As a result, he lost four tenths on the straight. Otherwise we would have had two cars on the podium.”

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Sergio Perez feared DNF after the power issue

Red Bull
Sergio Perez’s power failure in Bahrain GP

The conversation between Sergio Perez and his engineer was interesting. While the driver insisted on losing power from the car, he was told it was just the loss from the tow. But as the team later realised, the problem occurred in the car, which Christian Horner reported in nearly 40 watts of battery power for the Mexican.

This loss caused Sergio to lose four-tenths on the straights, but he still managed to hold his position and cross the finish line at P4. But it was evident he wanted more. His pit under the safety car on the softs was meant to fetch him another podium, however, things didn’t pan out for him as desired. 

Speaking about his battle with Sainz, Perez said“I think it was a sensor issue that we had. It was working well but then when we had the sensor issue we lost like seven seconds in two laps. And then it was just a poor race. Even with the DRS I couldn’t get close to Carlos. The deficit on the straight line was quite hard.”

Sergio currently stands P3 in the drivers’ championship and has been pivotal to the team’s contention for the constructors’ championship early in the season. So far, with a pole in Saudi Arabia and a good drive in Miami, he has proven himself as the perfect candidate for Red Bull, yet again.

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