Sergio Perez believes Ferrari is “not reachable” in the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix as the Red Bull drivers struggled to unlock comfort or speed throughout practice.
Perez had suggested going into the race weekend that Monte Carlo’s unique circuit characteristics could make Red Bull more vulnerable to rivals Ferrari and McLaren.
That transpired to be the case across the opening two hours on the track as Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set a strong pace in FP2 to move top with a near two-tenth gap.
But Red Bull was not the Italian squad’s nearest challenger, with both cars outside the top 10 in FP1 and Max Verstappen over five-tenths down in the second session.
Perez – who ended FP2 in eighth, three-tenths back on his team-mate’s best effort – complained about problems with his RB20’s ride during both the practice sessions.
“It’s going to be tough,” Perez concurred. “I think our limitations are really hard to get away from them at the moment, and the ride.
“So we’ll see what we are able to come up with tonight. We run two cars slightly different. I don’t know what the issues for Max were.
“So plenty of things. The long-run pace seems to be in a better condition, but obviously it’s just too late. We just have to wait and see.”
The Mexican agreed with his team-mate’s view that matching Ferrari’s lap times and competing at the sharp end tomorrow is unrealistic unless Red Bull makes gains.
“I think Ferrari at the moment are just not reachable,” he commented. “I think they’re really, really strong.
“Whenever they need the lap, they just seem to put it on really easy, really quick.
“And it’s something that it’s quite a benefit around this place, to be able to put the lap in quick and whenever you need to, and don’t struggle so much with tyres and that sort of thing.
“They’re looking very strong at the moment.”
Asked whether there was one area to focus on overnight, Perez replied: “I don’t think it’s only one, I think we’ve got a few items that we need to be able to improve.
“And then hopefully it can put us back in the fight, and just be closer to the top. I think it’s looking tough at the moment.”
