Red Bull failed to top either practice session on Thursday in Bahrain, with Sergio Perez hinting that the team’s advantage over the competition is not as large as it’s being made out to be.
Sergio Perez has shut down suggestions that Red Bull has a large advantage over the Formula 1 field, stating he was “laughing“ at some gap theories.
Red Bull is the overwhelming favourite to win the World Championship this year after dominating the 2023 campaign.
The Milton Keynes-based outfit won every race bar one and was able to switch development focus onto its current car earlier than the competition due to having such a sizeable advantage.
Following the launch of the revamped RB20 for the current season, rival teams were quick to claim that Red Bull would once again dominate the field.
However, following the opening day of running in Bahrain, Perez does not believe that it possesses a large margin over the competition.
“We had a lot of people talking that we were a second ahead, I was just laughing at them because I know things are a lot closer,” said Perez.
“They [other teams] are looking very competitive and it’s going to be a very tight battle [during qualifying].”
Sergio Perez still positive over pace
Red Bull failed to set a session-best time on Thursday with RB’s Daniel Ricciardo and Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton topping FP1 and FP2 respectively.
Reflecting on the day for Red Bull, Perez asserted that it was a positive outing despite not challenging at the front of the field.
“It was really as expected, Bahrain is quite difficult,” he said. “FP1 to FP2, just learning the track and focus on qualifyng and the race weekend will be key for us.
“We explored the car quite a lot, we didn’t have the chance to do it in testing, so generally speaking it has been good.
“The good thing is whatever we do in performance runs seems to help in the long runs.
“We just have one aim which is to have a more balanced car and that will be better for the race and qualifying.”
