This numerical study deals with the heat release rate response of a sequential combustor flame to temperature perturbations. These flames are found in the new generation of gas turbine combustors, which are based on sequential combustion technologies. It is shown that the temperature perturbations T upstream of the fuel injection induce mixture fraction oscillations Z which also propagate toward the reaction zone, and that the combination of these two perturbations yields a strongly nonlinear heat release rate response Q . Large Eddy Simulation (LES) were performed using an Analytically Reduced Chemistry (ARC) mechanism, which includes 22 transported species in combination with the Dynamic Thickened Flame model (DTF). The burner flame transfer function (BFTF) giving the flame response with respect to T is obtained using a broadbandexcitation-based system identification (SI) as well as harmonic single frequency excitations. A simplified configuration with perfectly premixed conditions is considered to quantify the respective contributions of the different types of perturbation. These simulations highlight (i) the strong nonlinearity of the flame response to temperature perturbations, and (ii) the difficulty to break down the global flame response into independent driving mechanisms by making use of "simplified" configurations.