Sergio Perez QUESTIONS Red Bull strategy after losing out to Max Verstappen

Verstappen talking to Perez during the Belgian GP weekend — Photo: © LAT Images

Dutch Grand Prix

1 reactie

Perez QUESTIONS Red Bull strategy after losing out to Verstappen

The Mexican took to the airwaves to question Red Bull's strategy at the Dutch Grand Prix

Luis Raya

Sunday 27 August 2023 19:57 Updated: 22:50

Sergio Perez took to team radio during the Dutch Grand Prix to question Red Bull's strategy after Max Verstappen undercut him to take the lead at his home race.

The Mexican driver, who started seventh, had a strong start to the race, switching to intermediates early on when rain began in the opening laps, thus moving up to take the lead.

However, the rain didn't last long and soon the track started to dry out, causing the intermediate tyres to produce slower lap times than the slicks.

Article continues under video

Red Bull then decided to call Verstappen in for a pit stop first on lap 12, while he was in P2 and just over two seconds behind his team-mate.

Perez pitted a lap later, but the improving track conditions caused the Mexican to come out behind the Dutch driver, who executed a textbook undercut.

In disbelief, Perez had a radio exchange with his team, asking: "Did Max undercut us?" The blunt reply of: "Yes, Max undercut us," was issued back by his engineer.

Sky Sports F1 pundit, Bernie Collins, commented that it was likely Red Bull would try to cover off Fernando Alonso's position, as he was closely threatening the second place.

“So just a bit further information on Verstappen vs Perez – why did the team make that decision?" she said.

"It appears to me that they were trying to cover off Alonso who had stopped one lap earlier than both of them. They wanted to ensure they held on to that position with both cars.

“It’s interesting that Verstappen came out eight seconds ahead of Alonso, so we’ll need to go through that fully to review, but that’s some information [from] the team as to why they made that decision at the time."

The weather conditions led to a chaotic race strategy

Later on in the race, there was another bizarre strategy call when the Mexican was told to box for full wet tyres, just before what looked like an increasingly likely red flag.

Moments later, the red flag was confirmed, yet thankfully for Checo, positions were counted back from the previous sector, meaning that he was able to regain his third position.