Sergio Perez calls for Red Bull upgrades after “total nightmare”

Sergio Perez was left frustrated with the performance of his Red Bull car after finishing 10th in the F1 Singapore Grand Prix.

The Mexican could only qualify 13th on the grid after being dumped out of Q2 on Saturday, and found it hard to make progress in Sunday’s grand prix.

A good start boosted Perez into the top-10 but he had to settle with just a single point for his efforts after being unable to make further progress through the field.

“Unfortunately we were just not able to maximise the result today,” Perez told Sky Sports F1. "It was a shame.

“It’s now time to look forward to the next races of the season because today was a total nightmare, a disaster with the balance. I struggled a lot.”

Perez felt Red Bull kept him out too long before pitting him in the hope they might capitalise on a potential Safety Car which never arrived.

“In hindsight we probably went on too long, unfortunately, and that meant we lost out,” he added.

And Perez believes Red Bull need a “good upgrade” to challenge McLaren after losing further ground in both world championships.

Lando Norris’ dominant victory over Max Verstappen saw him cut the Dutchman’s championship advantage down to 52 points.

In the constructors’ championship, McLaren now hold a 41-point lead over Red Bull with six races remaining.

“I think we need a good upgrade,” Perez admitted. “The coming tracks should be better for us, so hopefully we are able to have a better package coming up.”

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said: “Max drove a strong race today and P2 was what we had.

"If you consider where we were a few weeks ago the progress is visible, and we have the better part of a month to put our heads down and make some progress before we head to Austin. There will be a lot of late nights in Milton Keynes.

“As a team, we wanted to avoid a repeat of last year in Singapore, and the effort that went in to preparing for this race resulted in giving the drivers a better car and more confidence in the direction of development.

“The McLaren is the benchmark car at the moment and we have a bit to catch up to at the moment, but we have the people, the ability, and the drive to do just that. We are still in the fight, and now have a few weeks to work on things before we go again."