The Mexican driver felt comfortable on the first day of serious work with Red Bull
Red Bull Racing driver Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez had his first day aboard the RB16B where his best time was 1: 31.682 on the Bahrain circuit. The Mexican suffered an incident in his car that lost the engine cover when it came out of the water flow Williams of Nicholas latifi. A very rare incident.
“It was a great day testing the RB16B thoroughly And, despite the difficult conditions there, I had a very satisfying day and there is much to be done. It’s great to work with the whole team and I have a lot to do – I can feel the potential. I’m in the car on Sunday morning, so I hope to get more out of the laps “, said Pérez.
The incident that the Jalisco driver had was when he had about an hour and 20 minutes left in the session, Checo was on the main right after Williams woke up, all very routine: one car follows another to cover the air and the car from in back takes up more speed. But when it came out of the stream and the air “touched” Checo’s Red Bull, the force was such that it detached part of the car’s engine cover, so that the Formula 1 authorities stopped the training session.
The Mexican finished eighth out of the 16 who took to the track on Saturday in Sakhir. “Checo” did not have major problems on the first day with the team. It was consistent with the Pirelli C2 compound – which is a tough compound from the manufacturer’s range. All the drivers who preceded him, including Valtteri Bottas’ Mercedes, who got the best moment of the day, drove with softer and faster tires.
Guillaume Rocquelin, the race’s chief engineer, said Pérez’s work was good, which simulated a real race to see how it will fit into the first races of the Formula 1 calendar.
“Today he had a race simulation, including visits to the pits, which was very good for him, so that he could better integrate into the team and speed up the processes. We had a few details, nothing great and it didn’t affect our engineering program, so there are things you discover by testing “, he explained.
“It simply came to our notice then. I didn’t follow the times on the circuit and I had only one lap on the difficult terrain, so there are no conclusions about the timing. It was a good two days and we hope to close in a good way “, he concluded.
F1 practice will continue on Sunday from one o’clock in the morning in central Mexico. It will be early when Checo Pérez will return to the controls of the car, and the day, the last of the rehearsals, will be finished by Verstappen. The next time the Guadalajara man climbs the RB16B, it will be his first free practice on Friday 26 for the first Grand Prix of the 2021 calendar.