Perez makes McLaren prediction as Red Bull revelation made

Sergio Perez has revealed that Red Bull finally understand what caused its recent issues but still feels that McLaren is the "benchmark" at the Italian Grand Prix. 

Red Bull has not been the quickest team in recent rounds and was beaten comfortably by McLaren in Zandvoort last weekend. 

Lando Norris beat Max Verstappen to pole position by over three-tenths of a second, whilst the Briton claimed victory by almost 23 seconds. 

McLaren has made strong strides forward this year and has reduced Red Bull's lead in the constructors' championship to just 30 points. 

Perez believes the Dutch GP was not a venue which suited Red Bull's strengths but still expects McLaren to be the team to beat in Monza this weekend.  

"Well, I think what they've shown in Zandvoort was really, really strong," Perez told media including RacingNews365. 

"I think it's been the strongest performance we've seen from McLaren in a while. At the same time, I think we have every hope to believe that Zandvoort is probably a really bad track for us in regards to the wind, that we suffer more than others. 

"We'll see. We come to a very different track and we expect them to be still the benchmark. Hopefully we can get closer and be in the mix in the race."

Red Bull issue identified

Red Bull's understeer issue in Zandvoort was obvious on onboard cameras, with some footage having shown Verstappen's RB20 at Turn 10 fail to respond to the three-time world champion's steering input. 

Despite the difficulties the Milton Keynes-based outfit faced, it was one of Perez's better performances, as he turned fifth on the grid into a P6 finish. 

Ahead of Monza, Red Bull finally understood the cause of the RB20's issues, which have been based around the balance of the car. 

The big question now, as identified by Perez, is how quickly the team can fix the problems.

"The biggest thing for us is that we understand now the issues with the car," added Perez. "We understand them. 

"It's just a question of how quickly and what solutions we have to fix them. But we exactly know where we are with the car. 

"We know what is the issue. And hopefully in the coming weekends, even already for this one, we are able to make a lot of progress."