Anger boils over in Brazil between Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez
Verstappen #Verstappen
George Russell secured the win in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, holding off his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton for the first F1 victory of his career.
However, frustration between a pair of teammates might be the bigger story as the F1 circuit packs up and leaves Interlagos behind.
Red Bull teammates Max Verstappen and Sergio Pérez were not of the same mind as the Brazilian Grand Prix wound down into the final laps. With five laps remaining, Pérez was in sixth position, with his teammate right on his heels. Pérez had been running in third position, but was overtaken in succession by the two Ferrari drivers. First it was Carlos Sainz, and after him, Charles Leclerc:
Then Alpine’s Fernando Alonso had passed him as well, and with Pérez sliding back into sixth and Verstappen coming fast, Red Bull faced a decision.
At that point in the race, Verstappen was the faster of the two Red Bull cars. Given that, the decision was made for Pérez to let Verstappen pass, to see if he could track down the Ferrari pair:
The reason for this, which we will dive into more in a second, had to do with where Leclerc and Pérez sit in the driver’s standings. The two are locked in a battle for second position, and if Pérez could not track him down himself, Verstappen getting past the Ferrari driver would also help Pérez in the standings.
However, the Ferrari duo continued to maintain their positioning on the track, and Verstappen could not close the gap on either Leclerc, or even Alonso sitting in fifth.
That is when, on the final lap, the decision was made by the team to let Pérez pass Verstappen. With Verstappen having already clinched the championship, and Pérez fighting for position in the standings, the additional points meant more to Pérez than Verstappen. With Pérez and Leclerc locked in their battle for second place, adding a few additional points would go along way towards the Mexican driver securing that spot in the final standings.
So, one would think Verstappen would slide over and let Pérez by, right?
Apparently he would not.
Verstappen did not let his teammate pass him on the final lap, and gave a vague statement as to why as he came across the line:
As you can hear in the above radio transmission “I told you already last summer, guys, don’t ask that again to me. Okay? Are we clear about that? I gave my reasons, and I stand by it.”
When Pérez came across the line, he congratulated his team for their effort. Team Principal Christian Horner apologized to Pérez, who then shared his thoughts on the finish:
After Pérez came out of his car, he was asked about the incident, and he pointed to everything he had done in the past to help Verstappen secure back-to-back titles:
“I don’t understand why he didn’t give me the position, even with everything I have done for him. If he has two titles, it’s because of my help!” Perez said.
Following the race, Helmut Marko of Red Bull indicated that the air had been cleared between the drivers, and that Verstappen would do everything to help his teammate secure second place in the season finale:
As the F1 circuit heads to Abu Dhabi for the year’s final race, Pérez and Leclerc are knotted at 290 points each with one race remaining.
We’ll see if Verstappen is true to his word in a week.