F1 News

Verstappen and Perez drive with different floors

2 September 2022 at 11:39
Last update 2 September 2022 at 14:14
  • GPblog.com

Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez will drive with different floors this weekend. Perez drove with the new floor last weekend at Spa-Franchorchamps, but despite the speed difference with Verstappen, the driver will not return to the old floor.

At Spa-Franchorchamps the Mexican drove for the first time with the, for him, new floor. Verstappen drove with the new floor at Silverstone and Red Bull Ring, which is said to have similarities with the floor used by Ferrari. Although the car with the new floor was slower than Verstappen's car, Red Bull Racing wants to use the new floor in the coming races as well. The reason for this is that the team wants to collect more data to further develop the floor.

Perez floor development

That would not be the only reason, by the way. As a result of continued development of the car since the start of the season, the current car suits Verstappen better and Perez is less comfortable with it. “I think in the beginning, I was more comfortable,” the Mexican told Motorsport.com. From the first free practice, the car felt good. It's different now: “I could feel like every time I came to a weekend in FP1, I was already easily happily with the balance, and things were coming natural."

To better understand why teammate Verstappen is so much faster, Perez visited the factory in Milton Keynes last week. There he spent time on the sim. He hopes it will help him keep up with Verstappen in terms of speed. "Hopefully I'm able to get another gear on my on my side," he said.