Perez sets sights on more podium appearances – “I need and want to be there weekly for the Team and for myself”

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez will be entering the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix off of a great performance that earned him second place in Australia. He is pleased with the podium result and hopes to be taking the top positions more regularly moving forward.

“I am looking forward to getting back in the car this weekend. It was a mixed few days in Australia for the Team but for me I managed another consistent weekend, after my pole and fourth place in Jeddah.”

“I am pleased with how I have been performing so far and getting on the podium for the first time this season in Melbourne was a step in the right direction but I won’t stop there, I need and want to be there weekly for the Team and for myself.

Perez’s goal for the Imola weekend is to claim a large sum of points for the team, particularly focused on moving as close to the sharp end of the grid as possible with Friday qualifying. He mentioned the chance of rain as an added factor for the weekend. In the case of rain, Perez plans to look to his previous effort at a rainy Imola last year in order to prepare and make improvements.

“We go back to the sprint format this weekend and I will be aiming to pick up the most points possible. That all comes from a good qualifying performance on Friday, and I hope to hook it up again in Italy. It looks like it could rain this weekend so that will play a part and I want to learn from the performance I had in Imola in the wet last season and continue to improve in all areas.”

“We’ll take it race by race and we’ll see where we end up.” – Max Verstappen

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Max Verstappen is excited to return to Imola and take part in the season’s first sprint race, which places greater weight on the special format’s reduced practice time.

“I’m looking forward to racing again this weekend in Imola, this is obviously the first sprint race of the year so it’s important to make the most of the first practice session, so we have a good understanding of where the set up needs to be for qualifying on Friday.

He said the team is putting in a lot of effort ahead of the weekend, which Verstappen hopes will translate to a “straight-forward” time in Imola. He will likely be aiming to make up for the lack of points earned in two of the three races so far due to reliability-related retirements, and continue to compete with the leading Scuderia Ferrari.

“The Team trackside and back at the factory in Milton Keynes are working incredibly hard, hopefully we’ll have a straightforward weekend and that we score some good points as a Team. For now, we’ll take it race by race and we’ll see where we end up.”