If you had asked Sergio Perez before his debut race for Red Bull if he had been satisfied with fifth place, he would probably have answered in the negative. But after a failed qualifying session and a bizarre problem during the warm-up lap, he will squeeze his hands. Red Bull chief engineer Paul Monaghan explains what exactly went wrong for Perez.
“There were no signs of a problem on the lap to the grid,” said Monaghan. “The car behaved perfectly. During the formation lap the problems started. There is a system that shuts down the car to protect it and it was quite entertaining, that sequence of events,” he laughs out loud.
Chuckling, Monaghan explains what happened and how important it was for Perez to react assertively. The problem could have cost the race from the newcomer at Red Bull.
“The thing (the car, ed.) Lost all electrical power, Checo (Sergio Perez, ed.) Has the presence of mind to do the right thing, like when your laptop breaks down you turn it off and on again. all of a sudden, the engine starts, he drives to the end of the pit lane and waits for everyone to take their place on the grid and start from the pits. finish the race, “he laughs.
Monaghan is impressed by the Mexican’s performance. Instead of driving around in frustration, Perez pulled himself together and drove a controlled race.
“He was brilliant, he recovered and he didn’t get frustrated,” says the chief engineer. “He didn’t lose his motivation, he did his job, drove forward, did a great race and scored a lot of points for us while he was still off the track on the formation lap and was without power.”
“Thank goodness he had presence of mind. He had no radio communication, we didn’t tell him to reset the ignition, he did it for us,” said Monaghan.
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