The data relating to Sergio Perez are in line with what was stated by the Red Bull team principal: Checo at least in the first few meters tried to secure the additional point without success – by MARCO BELLORO
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A point. Which at the moment makes the difference between the first and second place in the Drivers’ standings between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez and which could also do so at the end of the season in Abu Dhabi. The additional point guaranteed by the fastest lap in a Grand Prix yesterday became the main theme of the finale of the race held in Jeddah together with the masterpiece with which Kevin Magnussen snatched the tenth place from Yuki Tsunoda after various unsuccessful attempts, unlocking the Haas and still leaving the AlphaTauri with a dry mouth which together with McLaren are the only teams still dry in this beginning of 2023. Verstappen and Perez received the instruction from the Red Bull pit wall to slow down in the final stages so as not to put the RB19s to the test, which at least in Jeddah showed some weaknesses from a reliability point of view. The two-times world champion did not respect this order in the last lap managing to snatch the fastest lap from Perez even without having had the exact reference of the time to beat, information not given to him by the pit wall, not missing the opportunity to continue throwing clear messages both to the team and to his pit-mate: in Red Bull he is the number 1.
Perez also tried: telemetry confirms Horner’s thesis
In the post-race Perez both in the podium room and during the interviews did not hide a certain disappointment at Verstappen’s ‘betrayal’ in the last round. “We’ll have to talk about it” (with the team, ed) declared to the Latin American media, also not missing the opportunity to investigate with Verstappen if Max too had been instructed to slow down towards the end. Team principal Christian Horner explained that both drivers had had the same information and that there was nothing to stop them from launching into the final lap in search of the fastest time. Reducing the pace did not give Red Bull evidence of an improvement in the vibrations felt by Verstappen at high speeds and therefore Verstappen successfully attacked the best time. Horner also added that Perez also tried to do the same but abandoned the attempt to improve after a few corners on the last lap since when he came out of the first chicane he was about a tenth to a tenth and a half behind himself. Thanks to the telemetry data provided by Federico Albano we went to check if Horner’s words corresponded to the truth and indeed it is. Perez quite early abandons any ambition to sign the fastest lap in the fiftieth and final lap, but at least in the very first meters he tried as shown by the graph on the cover which shows that until after Turn-3 the telemetry between Perez’s best lap and the last one is not so different, just a tenth to a tenth and a half late. Perez therefore used dialectics with a pinch of cunning in the post-match interviews, a dynamic to which is also added the case of the celebratory tweet modified by removing the phrase “I want to be champion”.
The Monaco precedent
It is not the first time that Perez’s telemetry has been targeted. In fact, following the 2022 Brazilian Grand Prix, Max Verstappen’s entourage revealed to the media that the reason why the Dutchman is so ruthless towards Perez can be traced back to a voluntary accident by Checo in Q3 in Monaco to stay in front of his box mate forcing the exposure of the red flag. A voluntary accident admitted by Perez once cornered by Helmut Marko telemetry in hand.
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