BAKU, Azerbaijan — After a race that ended Sunday with Sergio Perez in the wall and teammate Max Verstappen being overtaken by his title rival Lando Norris, there are still signs of optimism at Red Bull.
Norris cut into Verstappen’s Formula 1 standings lead, and McLaren took the constructors’ championship lead off Red Bull, while Verstappen now hasn’t won in seven races. The Dutch driver does, though, seem happier with a car he had labelled a “monster” and “undrivable” after the last race in Italy.
Giving up three points to Norris wasn’t ideal, but Verstappen still has a lead of 59 points and seven rounds remaining. He was optimistic the car was more competitive after Friday practice but said the team made the wrong setup decisions for him in Saturday’s qualifying, which also applied to the race.
“We learnt a lot. We will try to do better,” Verstappen said. “If we do a better job ourselves, they (McLaren) need to do a perfect job to the end of the year.”
And Perez seems to be back.
Perez was third for much of the race and was challenging the two Ferraris for second when he and Sainz collided. It showed he could be a factor in the remaining races of the season despite not having been on the podium since April — a run that saw his place in the team being questioned.
“The positive thing is the pace is back, the changes to the car seem to have put us back in contention,” Perez said in a team statement Sunday, arguing that he was a contender for the win in Baku. “We need to keep it up with the progress we have made.”
Perez generally does well on street circuits — with Singapore next week — and there’s also his home race in Mexico coming up next month. When he’s on form, Perez has been valuable in keeping rivals off Verstappen.
Red Bull brought what was described as a “subtly revised” floor to Baku. It might be the team’s only upgrade all season which has seemed to make the car more — not less — competitive.