Christian Horner believes Sergio Perez’s tire difficulties in the 2022 F1 season may be due to the fact that the new 18-inch compound has only a small margin to optimize.
Sergio Perez has built a reputation as one of the strongest drivers when it comes to tire management throughout his F1 career, especially during his time with Sauber and Force India.
But after the last Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix of 2022, Sergio Perez admitted he struggled with this year’s Pirelli tyres, which were replaced with 18-inch wheels designed to allow drivers to push harder.
“We struggled a bit with these tires this year in terms of race tire management,” said Perez.
“So hopefully we can improve on that for next year and be a little bit stronger overall.”
Sergio Perez abused his right-front tire at the start of F1’s Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, forcing him to switch to a two-stop strategy and tire difficulties have taken a toll.
Ultimately, he failed to close the gap in the final stint, sacrificing track position to second-placed Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), who ultimately opted to stop, determining both the race and the final standings. .
When asked about the difficulties with Sergio Perez’s tires this year, Christian Horner noted that small set-up changes had a big impact on tire performance.
“What we’ve seen this year is very tight margins,” Horner told Autosport.
“Even a slight front wing shave, a slight increase in ground clearance, a small mechanical balance adjustment can have a dramatic effect on tire life.”
“Czech has ridden so many races and I think his tires were fantastic. The only thing that compromised him in Abu Dhabi was the first stint, where he was in front on the right over Charles and Max[Verstappen]. There was a lot of grain.”
“Then having to pit made it out of sync and it was a very compromised stop, so the double stop was a more aggressive race.”
Sergio Perez struggled to maintain his challenge to Max Verstappen throughout the season, finishing the season 149 points behind with just two wins to his teammate’s 15.
Category: F1 / Red Bull / Pirelli / Sergio Perez
