Verstappen now has same problems I’ve had for most of season

Sergio Perez believes the problems Max Verstappen is struggling with in his Red Bull are the same ones he encountered many races earlier.

The pair qualified on the fourth row of the grid for this weekend’s race and were separated by two places at the chequered flag. Verstappen has beaten Perez by much larger margins for much of the year, particularly since the seventh round of the championship at Imola. Perez finished every race prior to that inside the top five, and hasn’t done so again since.

Now Perez suspects Verstappen is encountering the same problems he first experienced much earlier in the season.

“I really feel like I’m in the same boat as I’ve been in the last 10 races,” he told the official F1 channel. “But now, all of a sudden, Max has come to similar issues.

“So there’s a little bit of confusion there. But it’s clear in the data where the problem is.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said after qualifying yesterday that the problems with their car persisted even when the tried switching Verstappen back to an older specification at the Dutch Grand Prix.

Perez finished today’s race in eighth position. “I’m pretty disappointed,” he admitted afterwards. “I was expecting it to be difficult, but not this bad. We basically were slow and high degradation, especially on the medium [tyre compound].”

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He had a lengthy scrap with George Russell at one stage, and though he was unable to keep the Mercedes driver behind, Perez was pleased Verstappen could out-run him to the flag.

“I compromised a little bit my race, I think, to keep George behind,” he said. “That worked quite well for us because we were able to hold George behind for a little bit.

“In the end he came really close to Max so I think it made a difference to the team in terms of points that we secured today.”