Sergio Perez has revealed that Red Bull discovered more difference between its old and new floors than initially expected, during last weekend's United States Grand Prix.
The Mexican driver did not have the upgraded floor on his RB20 at the Circuit of the Americas, which was run solely by Max Verstappen.
Verstappen claimed sprint pole and then the F1 sprint victory, before finishing third in the main race. As for Perez, he finished ninth in the sprint and seventh in the race.
It marked another frustrating weekend for the 34-year-old, who wants to work with the Milton Keynes-based team to understand what went wrong.
"I think we lost a lot of time in the beginning of the race getting stuck behind the midfield," Perez told select media including RacingNews365.
"And then towards the end of the race, again with Franco [Colapinto], we did lose a couple of seconds that were very costly in the end. But generally speaking, we lacked some pace across the weekend.
"I think it's something we have to work together with the team to understand where the pace has gone and really try to figure out the differences on the floors, it resulted to be bigger than we initially thought."
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Perez Mexico City uncertainty
On the back of a difficult weekend in Austin, Perez heads to his home country for the Mexico City Grand Prix.
For Perez, it is the most important weekend of the season, given the thousands of supporters he will have in attendance.
However, with the Red Bull driver unsure whether he will have the new floor at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, it could be another challenging grand prix.
When asked if he will have the new floor, Perez revealed: "We don't know yet. As we are learning these floors, we might take an opportunity to bring a new spec later on, so we'll see. I think in the coming days, we will know more."
Verstappen had a significant pace advantage over Perez throughout the US GP and appeared to have a more balanced car.
Perez struggled to exploit the most that the RB20 could offer with the old floor, with the new one having been stronger in two key areas.
He explained the differences between the new and old floors, and said: "The main difference comes in the high speed and braking. There seems to be more load than we initially predicted.
"That was the biggest thing, and then a bit overweight as well."
Also interesting:
Join RacingNews365's Ian Parkes, Sam Coop and Nick Golding, as they look back on the US GP and look ahead to this weekend's race in Mexico City. Max Verstappen and Lando Norris' Turn 12 incident is a key talking point, as is the narrative change in both F1 championships.
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