While Carlos Sainz was receiving plenty of well-deserved praise for his performance in Melbourne, several teams and drivers left Albert Park with more questions than answers.
Mercedes still appear to be off their desired pace although that wasn’t the reason that both of their cars failed to finish the race.
Speaking on the Sky Sports F1 Podcast, Bernie Collins highlighted a problem one of their key rivals was dealing with.
Ferrari will be delighted with their first one-two finish in years, although they might be starting to have doubts about whether they retained the right driver for 2025.
McLaren secured their first podium of the season and have built a healthy lead over Mercedes and Aston Martin.
However, Red Bull finally had a difficult weekend and Collins pointed out an issue that Sergio Perez encountered in Australia.
The 34-year-old could only pilot his car to fifth after teammate Max Verstappen retired due to a brake issue.
That’s raised further questions about his suitability for the role, but Collins wanted to highlight something technical that was going wrong with the RB20.
Bernie Collins highlights Sergio Perez issue in Australia
The wait goes on for Sergio Perez as he seeks to add to his six Formula 1 wins.
After winning two of the first four races in 2023, he’s had to sit and watch Max Verstappen hoover up victories with his dominance briefly interspersed with magic wins for Carlos Sainz.
Australia offered Perez his best opportunity this season to add to his tally, but Bernie Collins has pointed out an issue that will worry Red Bull and partly explain why he couldn’t close the gap to the McLarens or Ferraris.
Oscar Piastri commented after the race that he expected the Mexican to be a lot quicker than he was.
Team principal Christian Horner explained after the race why his second driver wasn’t as fast as many expected but Collins thinks she’s spotted a different problem.
Sergio Perez was hampered by RB20 issues in Melbourne
Talking about Red Bull’s weekend, Collins said: “Now, we don’t have the data from Max [Verstappen], but we do have the data from Checo [Perez].
“Ignore the lap time, the big unknown for Red Bull for me was at this type of track the deg was really quite poor for Checo at the end of the stint.
“He was really struggling at the end of each stint. He showed points where the Red Bull was fast.
“I think we had comments from both Mercedes drivers that it was like a rocket ship going past, but he couldn’t hold onto the deg and that’s a worry for Red Bull going forward.
“So, could Max have done a better job, we don’t know. So, could Ferrari have beaten them in a straight fight? It will be really interesting to find out eventually.”
Checo Perez racing for his Red Bull seat
While Perez might have dealing with a tyre degradation issue in Australia as Collins explained, that doesn’t absolve him of blame for his overall performance during the weekend.
His three-place grid penalty for impeding Nico Hulkenberg was far from ideal but he was still out-qualified by Carlos Sainz.
It’s a problem he’s been dealing with throughout his time at Red Bull and hampered his ability to control races, especially on the rare occasions when Verstappen isn’t leading the way.
Perez’s future at Red Bull is in doubt with his contract coming to an end and plenty of quick drivers on the market.
The team now have a ‘preferred candidate’ to replace the Mexican if he doesn’t do enough to convince the team he’s worth retaining.
However, noises coming from the paddock suggest that Red Bull might have already signed Perez up for 2025.
It would be a surprise to see Red Bull commit to Perez so early in the season, but right now he’s a decent if not spectacular partner for Verstappen.
The post ‘Really struggling’: Bernie Collins points out ‘quite poor’ issue 34-year-old was dealing with in Australia appeared first on F1 Oversteer.