Defending F1 champion Max Verstappen reported a locked brake from the start of the Melbourne race, and after losing the lead to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. on lap 2, the Dutchman’s right rear brake failed on lap 4, forcing him to retire. Red Bull’s star driver Verstappen made it three pole positions in a row at the start of F1 2024 in Australia, but despite taking the lead off the line, a rear right brake issue he had felt from the start quickly proved terminal, forcing the winner of the last nine grand prix to retire early.

Sergio Perez is confident that even if Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen had not retired from the Australian Grand Prix, Ferrari would still have won. Ferrari’s race performance and handling of front tyre graining, which had already been good in practice, has led Perez to claim that Sainz would have won the race anyway.

Red Bull had started the season with back-to-back 1-2 finishes, but Ferrari took advantage of the opportunity to open their victory account, with Sainz leading a Ferrari 1-2 ahead of Charles Leclerc. And, while Verstappen has been the clear pacesetter in F1 2024, Perez does not believe his teammate in a fully healthy Red Bull RB20 could have stopped Ferrari at Albert Park.

When asked by Sky F1 if Ferrari would have won even without Verstappen’s DNF, Perez said, “Absolutely, yes.” Building on his notion, Perez, who finished fifth and over a minute behind Sainz, stated that controlling the front tyres proved a huge stumbling block on Sunday’s Grand Prix, claiming that McLaren was also a “step ahead”. Lando Norris of McLaren earned third place, joining the Ferrari drivers on the podium.

We didn’t have the pace, unfortunately. Early on we could see that Ferrari and McLaren were a step ahead of us. I think we just couldn’t get the balance in a window. There is some work to do for the coming races. It was a very unique tarmac and throughout the weekend we were not able to manage the best possible grip level, the Mexican driver admitted.

We didn’t have the pace throughout the weekend. We were struggling already on Friday and we never got on top of the management of tyres. I think we just have to understand and make sure we can improve, he added.

Interestingly, Red Bull senior advisor Helmut Marko differed from Perez on Red Bull’s performance against Ferrari, claiming that the race outcome would have been “completely different” if Verstappen had not been forced to retire.