Christian Horner, Red Bull Racing’s F1 team representative, said the “don’t fight” instruction at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was not “strictly” a team order, and the pace difference between the two drivers was “big.” explained.
Sergio Perez took the lead from Charles Leclerc at the start, and Max Verstappen came in second when Leclerc pitted under the virtual safety car.
Sergio Perez had a five-second advantage at that point, but Max Verstappen caught up with Perez on medium tires and took the lead on lap 15 with a comfortable move overtaking his teammates.
It was after a radio message was broadcast telling Sergio Perez to “don’t fight” while Max Verstappen was chasing.
Christian Horner, who said Sergio Perez wouldn’t prevent him from fighting Max Verstappen earlier the weekend, said when asked if it was a team order, “it’s not exactly a team order.”
“The problem was that there were faster and slower cars, and Max had a considerable pace advantage over the Czech Republic at that time, and the Czech Republic had a fairly heavy graining on his tires. Was “
“It was just a matter of’if one car is faster, don’t hit each other against the pit wall here. Make concessions and focus on getting the best results for your team.'” ,
“The priority is to maximize the points against Ferrari. We know they have very fast cars at the moment and have seen how fast things get better.”
Charles Leclerc’s engine failure removed Red Bull Racing’s only realistic threat, with Max Verstappen scoring a comfortable victory over Sergio Perez by 20 seconds.
“When I think about it later, the rear degradation he experienced may have had too much weight behind him in the qualifying setup,” said Christian Horner about Sergio Perez.
“It’s worth noting that Max was certainly in better shape than the Czech Republic, who was at the back end of the first stint in the race.”
Category: Category: F1 / Red bull / F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix