2023-05-01 14:48:00
Things couldn’t be better for Red Bull Racing, as the British-Austrian Formula 1 team celebrated a double victory in the Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Sunday in Baku. Sergio Perez, who also won the sprint shootout on Saturday, won ahead of Max Verstappen. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc completed the top three podium.
All bliss, right? Not quite, because Verstappen was in a noticeably bad mood after the fourth race of the season. Although the world champion is six points ahead of his teammate in the overall standings, the Dutchman was disturbed by the circumstances under which he had to give way to the Mexican in Azerbaijan: When Verstappen pushed past pole position man Leclerc, it looked a long time the next victory of the 25-year-old before Nyck de Vries overlooked a boundary wall with his Alpha Tauri. The Red Bull strategists immediately brought Verstappen in to change the tires under yellow flags.
What they didn’t know: because de Vries’ car was badly damaged, the yellow flags were replaced by a safety car phase. The pilots who used the latter for a stop lost less time than before Verstappen, who therefore slipped back to third place. Although the world champion was able to overtake Leclerc again, he bit his teeth on teammate Perez.
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“We have to check whether everything really went well for us,” said Verstappen in the direction of his box. “If you look at the pictures later, you can clearly see that one wheel (at de Vries, note) was crooked, so it was clear that this car would not come back to the pits under its own power.” Accordingly, the hasty reaction of his racing team may have cost him victory. Team boss Christian Horner didn’t completely disagree: “You’re always wiser in hindsight. Of course we should have let Max stay on the track for a longer lap.” At the decisive moment, the team didn’t believe that a safety car was needed. “It was just bad luck for Max,” said Horner.
Perez has title dreams
Verstappen’s anger is understandable insofar as Perez could well become his fiercest competitor for the title this year.
The 33-year-old also makes no secret of his ambitions: “I have three children at home and wouldn’t travel the world if I didn’t believe that I could become world champion. That’s what I’m working towards.” Next weekend the duel in Miami goes into the next round.
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