Pierre Waché, technical director of the Red Bull Racing team, has explained the difference between Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez this season. At the start of the year, the Mexican seemed to be faster than his teammate at times, but Verstappen was clearly faster than Perez in recent months. Red Bull has made some adjustments to the car, but the team did not do that purely in favor of Verstappen.
The reigning world champion himself said that the balance of the RB18 at the start of the season did not suit his driving style. Due to the weight of the car, the driver experienced a lot of understeer, while the Dutchman does not prefer such a car. “Weight is definitely an important factor because it’s part of the set-up and at the start of the season we didn’t have the option to move the weight,” Waché is quoted as saying by AS.
The change in the balance of the car has helped Verstappen in the second part of the season. At the start of this year, Pérez was actually faster than his teammate on some circuits. ‘That has to do with several things. At the start of the season, Checo was more satisfied with the balance in the car. Now it is more difficult to find the right balance for Checo.’ According to Waché, that was completely by accident. ‘We just want a car with maximum performance. Max does it better, but we don’t do that on purpose.’
Waché: ‘Ferrari is also very fast’
This season, the RB18 runs especially well on the straights. ‘That is certainly not only due to the power source. The cars of the competitors just seem to have a little more air resistance.’ However, that doesn’t mean the other teams don’t have good cars. Ferrari is very, very fast. They were definitely faster in the early part of the year. We now have a very efficient car, but that does not apply to high downforcecircuits,” said Waché.
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