Christian Horner says it was “normal” for Sergio Perez to specific issues about Max Verstappen’s tempo through the closing phases of the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.
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Leader Perez and his Red Bull team-mate Verstappen have been pushing laborious within the last laps of the Jeddah race, with the Mexican efficiently sustaining the hole.
However, Verstappen heard an odd noise which led the staff to check the info for indicators of a doable repeat of the Dutchman’s driveshaft failure in qualifying, whereas Perez was nervous a couple of lengthy brake pedal.
It was at that time that, having been instructed to reasonable his tempo, Perez was eager to seek out out if Verstappen was doing the identical.
Eventually, the staff gave the go-ahead for each drivers to proceed to push earlier than they managed the tempo as soon as once more when it turned clear that Verstappen couldn’t catch Perez.
However, Verstappen then efficiently took the quickest lap level from his team-mate proper on the finish of the race.
“Once we got to the last five laps, and it was clear that Max wasn’t going to catch, then they came out of it and drove to a lap time,” mentioned Horner.
“I feel the largest level of concern for us through the grand prix was when Max radioed in with about 15 laps to go saying he heard a high-pitched noise at excessive velocity, and so your coronary heart instantly sinks, occupied with the driveshaft failure of yesterday.
“But checking all the data that we have here, everything that they could see back in Milton Keynes. All the parameters we had looked okay. And obviously, then they pushed on again.”
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB19
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Regarding the request from the pitwall for Perez to lap in “target plus 0.4s,” Horner defined: “It was when we thought that we had the issue with the driveshaft, so it was a matter of just trying to build in a little bit of margin.”
It was at that stage that Perez requested if Verstappen was doing the identical, including that the drivers have been “pushing for no reason” given the reliability worries. Horner mentioned he understood why Perez can be involved.
“There’s always going to be that when you’re the lead car,” he mentioned. “You all the time need to know that the tail automobile has hit the goal first. So that is totally regular. I feel for us as a staff, we have been involved about if there was a reliability concern, how can we handle that?
“Once we saw there was no issue that we could see in the data, it was a question of letting them get on with it, and then basically both managing the last five laps.”
He made it clear that the drivers have been free to race: “The solely debates about managing the tempo was when the difficulty with the driveshaft turned prevalent.
“At that point think okay, let’s turn down both cars. But as soon as it became clear that we couldn’t see anything in the data, we released the cars again.”
Horner mentioned the staff was glad to let Verstappen push for the quickest lap on the finish of the race.
“Well, I feel we got here to the conclusion that you realize what, it is the final lap. If he’ll go, he’ll go.
“So I feel he’d already come to that conclusion himself. Both drivers had the data. Checo had the quickest lap at that time, he requested what it was.
“So it was apparent why he was asking. He knew that Max was going to have a crack at it. And Checo gave it up after the primary couple of turns, he was already a tenth and a half down, and then you definately noticed him again out of it.
“I feel that you simply go the message on to the motive force, in fact the staff’s curiosity is to maximise the factors and at no matter level you are feeling that you’ll have a reliability concern then you definately clearly handle that.
“I think inevitably Max said on the radio the point for the fastest lap meant a great deal to him and there was no reason for us not to let either he or Checo a have a crack at it.”
