You could almost forget it, but there was more to the Austrian Grand Prix than just the incident between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Although the race is hard to qualify as a huge spectacle, there is plenty for the teams to think about. Red Bull Racing was not only stuck with Verstappen who finished in fifth place, but also with Sergio ‘Checo’ Pérez who was unable to overtake Nico Hülkenberg’s Haas.
Red Bull team advisor Helmut Marko has dissected the race in his home country in his column for Speedweek. In the piece, the Austrian discusses, among other things, the performances of Pérez. At the beginning of June, the team and the Mexican announced that they would continue to race together in 2025. The choice came as a surprise to many, as only the start of the 2024 season was strong for Pérez. In Monaco, the race before the announcement, the Mexican dropped out and the same happened in Canada, a few days after the announcement. At the Red Bull Ring, Pérez finished eighth.
Patient but critical
Pérez crossed the finish line in Austria more than seventeen seconds later than teammate Verstappen and finished in seventh place. In sixth place was Hülkenberg in his Haas. Verstappen also did not have a glorious race after he had collided with Norris on lap 63 and had returned to the track in fifth place after a tire change. That was also where the reigning world champion finished the race. Marko would have liked to see Pérez make it to that fifth place in qualifying.
‘Pérez did quite well at times in qualifying,’ Marko wrote. ‘If he had managed to squeeze his best sector times into one lap, he could have taken fifth place on the grid. Given the small gaps, that would have been fine for a driver who is generally not that good in qualifying.’
During the race, Pérez managed to move up a position, but that didn’t go without a hitch. Marko says that the Mexican driver had suffered damage to his car after making contact with Leclerc’s Ferrari. ‘Pérez had enormous damage to his car after turn 1 and contact with Leclerc. As a result, the car suffered from enormous understeer. Unfortunately, these were parts that cannot be replaced during the race.’
The 81-year-old team advisor is generally quite mild about Pérez’s disappointing performances. Since Pérez signed his contract extension, Marko has not shown any doubts about the choice the Austrian team made to keep the Mexican on board. However, there is a somewhat critical note in the column. ‘We do need performances from Pérez now. It cannot be that he finishes behind a Haas car’, Marko concludes.
