Sergio Perez admits McLaren looking like the “strongest team” after Spanish GP

McLaren has been on a strong upward trajectory since the Miami upgrade package.

Sergio Perez admits McLaren looking like the “strongest team” after Spanish GP

Sergio Perez (Via: Imago)

The Spanish GP weekend started with the prediction that Red Bull might be on the back foot. Moreover, Mercedes had made substantial gains at the Canadian GP and looked to tackle the Austrian squad with all its might. However, after witnessing McLaren‘s pace at the Spanish GP, Sergio Perez claimed that the English team is the strongest on the grid.

Lando Norris secured an astonishing pole while beating Max Verstappen with a margin of just two-hundredths of a second. This shocked the Milton Keynes-based squad and sent a threat to Red Bull that they should not get too comfortable amidst their championship reign.

YouTube video

Moreover, after Norris challenged Verstappen for the win in Spain and barely salvaged it, Sergio Perez reckoned that McLaren was the fastest team.

FS Video
McLaren are looking like the strongest team and we need to make sure we are back on top. The most important is to maximise the balance, which is the most important than bringing upgrades.
Sergio Perez said in the post-race interview

The 34-year-old finished P8 at the Spanish GP and finished behind McLaren’s Oscar Piastri. Even on their best performance, the McLarens were a fair share quicker than the Austrian marque. This alarmed him and urged Red Bull to maximize the RB20’s balance and bring upgrades soon.

Max Verstappen explained why Red Bull was on the back foot in Barcelona

While Perez admitted that the English team was the fastest, Verstappen had to fight tooth and nail for the win. He further deemed the aggressive strategy to be the reason for his win. This led him to elaborate on why Red Bull was suddenly on the back foot.

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez (Via: Imago)

The Dutchman explained that the reason for their sudden slump was due to the regulations.

Naturally, we have less time in the windtunnel [time]. The success penalty, and we need to keep finding performance, and others have improved more. We just need to keep studying and finding more performance.
Max Verstappen said in the post race interview

Verstappen elucidated that since the Austrian outfit has been the reigning champions, they naturally have had less wind tunnel time. This hampers their development targets in comparison to others.

Despite claiming the slump in performance to be the regulation’s fault, the 26-year-old shared a similar stance to his teammate and reckoned that the RB20 needs upgrades soon. This would help them re-assert their dominance, but upgrades look a long way far for the Austrian outfit, as cost cap restrictions halt their progress.

In case you missed it: