Christian Horner has explained the reason why Red Bull issued team orders to Sergio Perez at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Fears of a repetition of Max Verstappen’s 2018 crash with Daniel Ricciardo at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix prompted Sergio Perez to be told “no fighting” on Sunday, according to Red Bull team principal Christian Horner.
Red Bull’s Sergio Perez managed to overtake Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc for the lead at turn one, but he had to wait for race strategy to allow another opportunity later in the race after the Ferrari opportunistically pitted during an early virtual safety car.
The result has flipped the standings; Verstappen now has a substantial lead over his closest competitors, thanks to the new balance of fortune, according to Marko.
Perez was left leading teammate Verstappen after Leclerc retired from the race, but the Dutchman reeled the sister RB18 in and performed the race-winning charge into turn one. Over the team radio, Perez was warned “no fighting,” but he was not specifically directed to pull over for Verstappen.
“The pace difference between the two drivers was so significant, we discussed it this morning that if they were racing each other, give each other space and they did that,” Horner explained.
“2018 isn’t too far away in the back of our minds, so it was very important that the drivers at this stage of the championship are fair with each other because our priority is to maximise our points to Ferrari.
“We know we have got a quick car at the moment, we know how quickly things can turn around so as a team, we need to prioritise that.”
The result has flipped the standings; Verstappen now has a substantial lead over his closest competitors, thanks to the new balance of fortune, according to Marko.
Verstappen now has a 21-point lead over Perez in the championship standings, with Leclerc dropping to third.
Perez’s maturity and desire to accept the larger team picture were complimented by Horner.
“Checo is a mature guy, he is a mature guy, he gets the bigger picture and he knows that this is a long long championship,” Horner said. “He is in the form of his career off the back of Monaco.”
“His qualifying performance, with the benefit of hindsight, there was too much weight put on qualifying with his set-up with the rear deg he experienced so that is something to look at because Max was in better shape in the race than Checo was at the back end of the stint.”
