Red Bull 'not feeling natural' despite “big steps” forward - Perez

Sergio Perez has conceded he is having trouble getting to grips with the new Red Bull on a single-lap run as he tries to settle in with his new team ahead of the season-opening race in Bahrain.

While Perez feels he is making “big steps all the time”, he claims he is not yet up to speed after finishing more than half-a-second off the pace of team-mate Max Verstappen at the end of Friday practice.

Speaking after the first day of running, the Mexican driver said: “We have some work to do over a lap, I don’t quite feel the car within me. I still have to think a lot about what’s going on out there. I doesn’t seem to be coming naturally over a lap.

“The long run, I seem to be more comfortable and the pace is there over the long run, so that is the positive bit. But we have some work to do on the performance side and also with the soft tyre we are going to be improving a bit more.”

Verstappen set the pace in both sessions for Red Bull, proving the team’s pre-season form and suggesting both drivers could take the fight to reigning world champions Mercedes this year.

Perez said he is confident the team can be “in the mix” in qualifying. He added: “Tomorrow is going to be very close out there in qualifying. We have a good pace. We have to make sure we get it right and have a good start to the season.”

The forecast is for higher winds in Bahrain for qualifying, which has the potential to upset the current order, while the Mercedes engineers will be working hard overnight to try to discover where the team’s pace advantage has gone.

Verstappen is keeping quiet on predictions but conceded: “I think we have a good car. There are still things for us to look into to [see] what we can do better tomorrow. It's going to be even windier so more difficult but we will see.

“I hope we can do a good job tomorrow. With the heat it is not easy to find a really good balance around the whole lap but it was a positive day for us.”

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