Red Bull are rueing a “tough” 2024 Mexico City Grand Prix which saw them slip to third in the constructors’ standings.
Reigning three-time champion, Max Verstappen endured power unit issues throughout Friday Practice sessions, but rebounded to qualify second on the grid before two in-race clashes with title rival, Lando Norris on lap 10 saw him penalised.
Verstappen eventually recovered from a 20-second time penalty to finish sixth which ultimately saw the team slip to third in the constructors’ standings, as Ferrari took 41 points to climb to second with a 33-point swing.
McLaren now sit 54 points clear of Red Bull with four rounds left of the season.
Bemusing his poor performance, Verstappen described the whole weekend as “tough” but vowed to bounce back.
“The start was good but after that we had no pace, we struggled on both compounds for the rest of the race. Because of the penalties we had a long pitstop, and it was a recovery drive to score as many points as possible after that. It is what it is.
“We need to understand what went wrong this weekend but there was not much else we could have done today. There’s a lot of things that we want to do better, and we will need to work hard to come back stronger in Brazil.”
Sergio Perez meanwhile had qualified 18th after a shock Q1 exit at his home event which left him with a “difficult” race, as he only finished 16th and a lap down after a five-second time penalty for a false start.
The Mexican though found himself in a scrap with RB’s Liam Lawson on Lap 18 over 10th position, yet the Kiwi held his own and denied Perez the position whilst damaging the Red Bull car in the process.
“Then I had the incident with Liam, he was the first hard tyre and we were a lot faster, we targeted the inside, we had the corner and I wasn’t expecting him to be there, I had the position going into turn five, he was off the track, came back on and I wasn’t expecting him to carry on straight.
“He took the whole side of the car off, he damaged my whole sidepod and my floor. I don’t really get it, it was totally avoidable, he just went for the incident and it ruined both our races.”
Team Principal, Christian Horner summed up Verstappen and Perez’s races as compromised by “penalties and damage”, although he acknowledged that neither driver had the pace.
“Pace was an issue for us today and that is something that we will really need to look at and understand where we lost out in the race. We had good pace yesterday, but we were lacking today so there will need to be a lot of hard work between now and Brazil.”
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