Formula 1: Max Verstappen and a desperate audio for not being able to catch Checo Pérez in the Azerbaijan GP

Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen dominated the Azerbaijan Grand Prixfourth round of the Formula 1 season. With two Red Bull Unstoppable, which are clearly the best cars on the grid, climbed the first and second steps of the podium -Charles Leclerc finished third, but a long way off- and gave the Austrian team its third 1-2 of 2023.

But what everyone experienced on the Baku street circuit was very different. While the Mexican, after having taken the lead, rode comfortably and without great worries; The Dutchman suffered a good part of the race – which gave very little emotion – because he was unable to find a way to get close to his teammate to try and recover the leadership, which he had given up after returning to the pits shortly before the Street. appearance of the Safety Car.

The desperation of the two-time world champion, who still managed to stay at the top of the drivers’ standings, was reflected in the talks he had with his team on the radio during some stages of the test and which emerged in a streaming Service Report DAZN.

“What gear should I use in Turn 3? It’s right between seventh and eighth,” he asks. Crazy Maximus to your mechanics And when they tell him to use the seventh, he replies: “Are you sure this mode is better? I don’t think so”. “Tell us what you’re fighting with,” they ask him from the pits.

“The balance between differential and engine braking is not good,” says Verstappen, who commented after Sunday’s race that this had not allowed him to maintain a consistent pace. “Okay, we’ll check,” they reply.

Shortly after, his team tells him: “Czech He did 45.4, you 45.6. He gets lost between turns 7 and 12. The biggest loss happens at turn 8″. The Dutchman, in a tone that denotes concern and helplessness, says: “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong, guys. I don’t know”. “You only lose two tenths at turn 8, but I wouldn’t push anyway”, they tell him on the radio. And he resigns himself: “Yes, I don’t know. I can’t push on that curve. I have no front grip.”

While, talks between Pérez and his team were much more relaxed and the Mexican was very pleased with the performance of his car and the pace it was having.

That difference, in the end, ended up translating into the result. Czech He finished first and celebrated his sixth category win and fifth on the street circuit. Crazy MaximusIn the meantime, he had to settle for second place, a result that would be highly celebrated by many, but for him it tastes like disappointment. Especially for the situation that made him give up first place.

It is after passing pole sitter Leclerc on lap four that Verstappen led until the sudden appearance of the Security machine it hurt him. On lap ten, the Alpha Tauri’s nyck devries stopped in turn 6 and forced a caution. The Dutchman was called into the pits to change tyres, but it was unfortunate that the safety car came in at that moment, as De Vries was unable to move his car.

Pérez, who had inherited the lead, took advantage of the neutralization to stop and defended the first position on the restart; while his partner had to overtake Leclerc to finish second and was unable to advance further.

Did Red Bull have the wrong strategy by sending Verstappen to the pits with the yellow flag? Second Christian Hornerhead of the Austrian team, there was no mistake.

“It was the optimal time to stop performance-wise,” said the Briton Sky Sports F1. “De Vries hadn’t hit the wall, his engine was still running and it looked like he was going to turn around and start from there. So we were already committed to stopping. We were surprised by the Security machine. Sure, in hindsight, you can always say you should have done what you could have done, but sometimes things don’t go your way.”

However, in an analysis published on the official Formula 1 website, BernieCollinsformer head of race strategy at Aston Martin, he considered another possibility.

The Northern Irish engineer accepted that Red Bull may have made a mistake, but assured that the team had time to change their mind and tell Verstappen that the pit entry has been cancelled.

“It was 32 seconds from the moment the double yellow flag appeared and the point where it would have been impossible for Verstappen to stay on track and 43 seconds from when De Vries was seen stopping on the GPS,” he explained. “All this information is available to the teams. Even with a communication delay, I felt there was time to react.”

Why didn’t Red Bull do it? According to Collins, because Pérez was much better than his team-mate, with no problems with tires or with the car, and was preparing to overtake on track to take first place. And Horner and his team saw in the yellow flag an opportunity to prevent the Mexican from overtaking an “injured” two-time champion on the track.

Only Red Bull and its drivers know what really happened. What the world saw was a very strong and increasingly confident Pérez as he celebrated his sixth victory and got very close to Verstappen in the championship standings, separated by just six points. And even Crazy Maximus desperate, that he could not find a way to show off all his talent on the Baku track. Will the two-time champion have a different fate this weekend in Miami, where he won last year?