Red Bull reveal “big hole” the reason Sergio Perez was beaten by a Haas in Austria

Red Bull boss Christian Horner has revealed a “big hole” in the sidepod of Sergio Perez F1 car was the reason he was beaten by Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg in the Austrian Grand Prix.

Perez endured another difficult race at the Red Bull Ring as he finished seventh.

The Mexican was in a battle with Hulkenberg in the closing laps, ultimately losing out.

Just looking at the results, it was a poor race for Perez, particularly as he was still beaten by Max Verstappen, who had a puncture and time penalty following his clash with Lando Norris.

However, Horner explained that significant damage to Perez’s car resulted in a big loss in straight-line speed.

“Checo, I mean, again, it was a tricky race for him,” Horner said to media including Crash.net. “He had quite a significant contact on the first lap.

“He had quite a big hole in the sidepod and then the loss of straight-line speed that that gives you, it’s a bit like an air brake.

“So that’s why he was struggling on straight-line speed. So, difficult to judge Checo’s race due to the damage that he had.”

Horner couldn’t put a figure on how much lap time Perez was losing, describing it as “significant”.

“I don’t have the exact numbers,” Horner added.

“All I know is he had lost a big hole, and it was being reported on the data that there was a significant loss because of it.”

Perez also lost crucial time in the race after picking up a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

Reflecting on the race, Perez said: “There was a lot of damage on the sidepod. I touched a bit with Piastri at Turn 4, I don’t know if it came from there.

“It was unfortunate because we had a good start, but from then on, the car was just nowhere nothing I could do, I was just off balance. Also with making a mistake on going into the pit lane with the pit limiter, it was just a disaster of a race that started really well.

“But I think with just lacking so much pace out there and lagging around, there was no hope for fighting people again.”