Max Verstappen’s father Jos has criticised Red Bull for “favouring” Sergio Perez on his way to the Monaco Grand Prix victory.
Red Bull had a good weekend, with Perez winning the Monaco Grand Prix and Verstappen finishing third, but Verstappen’s father still believes the company should not have prioritised Perez.
In the principality, the Mexican scored his third career race victory, capitalising on a mistake by leader Charles Leclerc and outdoing fellow Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz to take the lead. On a circuit where overtaking is notoriously tough, winning was little more than a formality from there.
Verstappen finished third after taking advantage of Ferrari’s mistake and passing Leclerc when the Monegasque was still in the pit lane.
Despite the fact that the team sandwiched Sainz on the podium with both drivers, Jos Verstappen was “disappointed” that his son was not given priority by the team.
The 50-year-old published a post for the official Verstappen website where he expressed his feelings on the outcome of the Monaco Grand Prix.
“Red Bull achieved a good result, but at the same time exerted little influence to help Max to the front. That he finished third, he owes to Ferrari’s mistake at that second stop of Charles Leclerc.
“The championship leader, Max, was not helped in that sense by the chosen strategy. It turned completely to Checo’s favour. That was disappointing to me, and I would have liked it to be different for the championship leader.”
“I would have liked them to go for Max, but of course I am not entirely objective. I think 10 points from Max have been thrown away here.”
Despite being in first place in the standings, Perez was faster than Verstappen all weekend and qualified ahead of the Dutchman on Saturday.
As a result, he was in a better position to attempt the undercut on the Ferraris ahead of him, which he did successfully thanks to Ferrari’s pit lane blunder.
Verstappen Snr blamed his son’s troubles for pace in Monaco on the Red Bull car, which he believes does not suit the defending world champion.
“Max’s third place was very disappointing,” he admitted. “We all saw that it was a difficult weekend for him.”
“It starts with the car, which simply doesn’t have the characteristics for his driving style yet. Max has far too little grip at the front axle. And especially in Monaco, with all those short corners, you need a car that turns very quickly. That was just hard.”
