28/08/2023
NEWS STORY
Though it might not have gone down well with Sergio Perez, Red Bull boss, Christian Horner defends the decision to allow teammate Max Verstappen to undercut him.
Starting seventh, Perez was the first driver to pit once rain began to hit at the end of the opening lap, while teammate Verstappen opted to stop a lap later.
As more drivers began to stop, making full use of his tyres in the conditions, the Mexican stormed his way into the lead in just two laps, while Verstappen had rejoined the fray in fifth.
The Dutchman had soon picked off the likes of Leclerc, Gasly and Zhou to take second, behind his teammate, when the team opted to pit him before the Mexican as it became clear that slicks were now the tyre to be on.
Verstappen pitted on Lap 11, while Perez stopped a lap later, by which time the Dutchman was already heading into the distance.
"Did Max undercut us," asked the Mexican as he suddenly found himself 6.1s down on the other Red Bull.
"The way he cut through the traffic was quite sensational," said Horner of Verstappen at race end as he defended the decision to pit the Dutchman first. "Checo then had the target to pull a gap on the cars behind him, but Max's pace, as he came through the field, was such that at one point he took seven seconds out of him in three laps, and was coming very, very fast.
"Then you get to that awkward point at the crossover, and Alonso and Gasly behind him had pulled the trigger and pitted," he explained. "You could see from Albon that suddenly the circuit was coming alive for the slicks.
"So had we pitted Checo first they would both have undercut Max," he said of Alonso and Gasly, "so we'd have gone from a net one-two to a net one-four.
"So we pitted Max first with the risk being that he'd undercut Checo but we'd end up with, as a team, first and a second. It was a no-brainer."
Asked about the Mexican's initial stop, Horner was keen to give the Mexican full credit.
"It was Sergio's call that he wanted to pit," he said. "That paid dividends for him because he was the first one, certainly of the front-leading cars, to jump onto the inter."
"I didn't know anything at the time," said Perez of the undercut. "Those things, we get to review them in the meeting and understand what are the reasons behind it.
"There are obviously reasons for that," he added. "It's always a strategic decision, you know. The team has a wider view of what's going on in the race."
Adding to his frustration was the fact that later in the race Perez was given a time penalty for speeding in the pitlane, thereby dropping him from third to fourth at race end.
"As I was coming into the pit lane, it was completely flooded," he explained. " I ended up crashing into the wall, and over-sped, I guess, on the entry.
"It's a shame we ended up losing the podium, because I feel like we really deserve it today."
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