With Sergio Pérez’s victory in Monaco and Max Verstappen’s third place, Red Bull is in the paradoxical situation of having seen the reigning world champion consolidate his lead in the standings, ahead of Charles Leclerc, while the Mexican reduced the distance between the two drivers of the Austrian team to only 15 points.
Inevitably, and after seeing that the inertia of those in energy drinks is better than that of Ferrari, some questions have arisen about the internal rivalry that could be created if both drivers remain very even and fight for the Formula 1 title in 2022.
Red Bull assured that it had no preferences between either of its two drivers on which one should fight for the world championship, despite the team’s orders at the Spanish Grand Prix to favor Verstappen after his own mistake and a problem with the DRS that ended up seriously harming him.
In a statement for Bloomberg , Christian Horner spoke about it and recalled the importance of working together for the team: “It’s a great challenge, but at the end of the day we are a team.”
“And they are part of the team, we are not ‘Sergio Pérez Racing’ or ‘Max Verstappen Racing’, we are Red Bull Racing . They work for the team and they have a responsibility: to drive the car in which around 800 employees work, the which have designed and produced it for them”.
“They are simply one more link in the chain, a very important link, yes, but it is vital that they are aware that the ambition of the team is greater than theirs.”
Without answering him directly, these statements refer to the words of Jos Verstappen, Max ‘s father, who was dissatisfied and questioned the way in which the Milton Keynes team had managed the Monaco Grand Prix race at a strategic level.
“Red Bull managed a good result, but at the same time, it didn’t do much to help Max on his way to victory,” the former driver wrote. “His third place is due to Ferrari’s mistake in Charles Leclerc’s second pit stop.”
“The leader of the championship, Max, was not helped in that sense by the strategy. Checo had an advantage. It was disappointing for me, and I wish it had been different,” he said, apparently disappointed.
“Perez actually won the race thanks to his pit stop. The team can perhaps explain this by saying that it was a risky bet, but they had already seen, with Gasly for example, that intermediates were the best option at the time.
“I wish they had done it differently, choosing Max, but of course I’m not entirely objective. But I definitely think ten points were lost for Max here,” he concluded.
