Verstappen, wrongly called pits “must be checked”

Max Verstappen finished 2nd at the Baku F1 GP after a quick call to the pits from his wall he hurt and took the lead from him at the expense of his teammate ‘Checo’ Pérez. For this reason, after the race, the Dutch driver asked his team to analyze what happened at that moment in order not to make the same mistake on future occasions. However, he also admits that he can’t hunt ‘Czech’ Perez because he punished the tires too much at the start of his second stint, on a hard tire, and because he was not comfortable with the balance of his car. ‘Checo’ is also faster at the start, and in that sense, Max made sure he kept the tires on too much during that first stint.

Max took the lead after passing Leclerc, but Pérez, who was 2nd, was closing in faster. Seeing that Nyck de Vries had crashed through the guardrails and that the rescue vehicle was about to come in at any moment, they quickly called Max. But it was too early. Max stops before the ‘Safety Car’ comes out, while ‘Checo’ does so soon after, with the safety car already on the track, gaining time. That raised the leadership of Mexico and left Max third, behind Leclerc, whom he soon caught up with again.

“I saw a car sitting there, and I thought maybe it was locked. You could clearly see that there was a flat tire and it didn’t look like I was going to drive back to the pits, even if I flipped over. . So it’s something to keep in mind, because of course it hurts my career afterwards.”commented the Dutchman. “You have to check if there was something that we could have done differently. But I always know that the team is trying to do the best and maybe today we were unlucky.”he added to the press.

Verstappen was uncomfortable with the balance

Pérez was lucky, undeniably, but his greatest merit was knowing how to take advantage of that situation with a good subsequent rhythm under the pressure of a Max, who could do nothing to get closer.

‘Checo’ did so well that even a tireless driver like Max ended up throwing in the towel and taking second place. Verstappen said he had problems with the car’s balance and played with the controls on his steering wheel until he felt comfortable in the final laps. It’s too late. ‘Checo’ was better and won the jackpot. Max tried and the two of them even leaned against the wall because of their excessive attack. But Pérez didn’t give up either, delivering a heavy blow to the table.

Verstappen admitted it. “I wasn’t entirely satisfied with the balance. I think in the first stint I was probably a bit more aggressive in the way I used my tyres. I guess I was too careful. That’s why Checo is still quite close. And then of course we made a pit call.”he commented.

“After the Safety Car, I tried to put pressure on ‘Checo’ to try to get into his DRS. I think one is pretty close to getting it. I probably broke my tires in the beginning for a long time. So, at one point, I just settled, tried to do my own thing a bit, so that the tires don’t end up breaking completely.”

“It’s very difficult to have a good balance in the middle of the turn. and many lap times here are gained by entering the middle of the corner. I just struggle with oversteer and understeer, so throughout the race I tried a lot of things with my steering wheel to get a better feel and balance in the car.”he assured.

Those things usually happen on a sprint weekend. Since there is only one free practice session, this format can mean that drivers of Verstappen’s status, with a very strong team behind them, can reach some races without everything under control and without perfection settings to get the most out of the car. . Pérez was more comfortable in his Red Bull, he was faster, pushed the tires when he needed to and took advantage of the ‘Safety’ to win. But he won not only because of the safety car, but because he showed good speed, without cracks.

He improved in the last laps

In that sense, Max made sure that after playing with the controls on his steering wheel to improve the balance, he hit the key in the final laps. “I think I found a good compromise at the end of the race because I think my last 10 laps were stronger and I was happier with the car from how everything behaved. So I think overall I’ll be happy with second place.”

“Of course you always want to win, but I think sometimes you need weekends like this to learn more and understand the car better, what the car needs to be faster. And sometimes on a street circuit like this… sometimes things like this can be a bit masked on a normal track because of the downforce and the general behavior of the car. So maybe this is a good day to move on.”finished