'The danger for Verstappen and his entourage'
- GPblog.com
Max Verstappen won the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, but Peter Windsor argues that the Dutchman should look closely at Sergio Perez. Indeed, the analyst believes that the Mexican gets more out of his rear tyres during qualifying.
After a dominant performance in Baku for Verstappen, one can quickly forget that the Red Bull driver was not Red Bull's best driver all weekend. Indeed, on Saturday, as in Monaco, his teammate was faster over one lap. Windsor looks at that situation in his new analysis on his YouTube channel.
Verstappen must learn from Perez
''The danger for Max and his entourage would be to think now 'on race day it was good and under race conditions Max knows how to drive'. I think they still need to look at why Sergio was so good in Monaco and Baku and how he managed to use the rear tyres so well.''
This difference in driving style was also seen in the race, according to Windsor. Indeed, the fact that Sergio made more use of his rear tyres bothered him during the race. ''The fact that Sergio suffered from wear so quickly also points to something he does during qualifying and Max doesn't.
"During the race, however, Max was in his own world and it was really great how he dominated the race.''
Red Bull has it right
For Red Bull Racing, however, the situation is ideal at the moment. With Perez, they now have a driver who gets the most out of the car on Saturday, and on Sunday Verstappen performs best. If those two can learn from each other then the team has a great driver duo on its hands.
''You can say of Max that he's in a sweet spot on Sunday when it comes to race day, just as Perez is in a sweet spot on Saturday in qualifying. Red Bull has the ideal driver combination in that respect. We now know that Perez can get more out of the rear tyres than Verstappen. It would be nice to see Max look at Sergio and think I should do that in qualifying too, and I'm sure he will,'' Windsor concludes.