Christian Horner has admitted the one thing that Sergio Perez did during the Saudi Arabian GP that was ‘unfortunate’ for Red Bull during Formula 1’s round in Jeddah.
The team from Milton Keynes sealed a one-two finish in the Middle East last weekend. Max Verstappen continued his dominant start to the 2024 season and won the Saudi Arabian GP from pole position. While Perez managed to put two Red Bull cars on the podium in second.
Red Bull have taken one-two results in each of the first two rounds with Perez also following Verstappen home at the Bahrain GP. But Horner thinks Perez made his race a little bit harder in Jeddah having drawn a five-second time penalty for an unsafe release at his early pit stop.
Sergio Perez’s Saudi Arabian GP penalty was ‘my mistake’
Perez admitted after the Saudi Arabian GP that it was ‘my mistake’ which drew the stewards’ wrath. The 34-year-old ignored Red Bull’s order to wait in his box as the field passed through the pit lane to change tyres under the safety car and pulled out in front of Fernando Alonso.
“Unfortunately, we were compromised with such an early safety car,” Perez told F1’s official website about his unsafe release penalty. “That meant that everyone basically just pitted.
“When I was going out it was actually my mistake because I was told by the team to hold it back. But in hindsight there I looked on the right and there was nobody there when I looked. In hindsight, I think the penalty was correct and that pretty much compromised our race.”
Perez forced Alonso to brake and avoid a collision in the pit lane as the 42-year-old passed Red Bull’s box en route to Aston Martin’s garage. The Mexican ignoring his team’s instruction nearly saw Perez T-bone the Spaniard and ruin their races more than a five-second penalty.
Red Bull boss rues Sergio Perez’s ‘unfortunate’ penalty
Ultimately, the penalty proved irrelevant for Perez’s result. He still finished the Saudi Arabian GP behind Red Bull teammate Verstappen but crucially ahead of Ferrari ace Charles Leclerc. The Guadalajara native held a 4.996-second gap to the Scuderia after applying the penalty.
But team principal Horner still believes Perez’s penalty was ‘unfortunate’ for Red Bull at the Saudi Arabian GP. It meant a ‘very strong’ performance by the team from Milton Keynes did not look as strong. Verstappen’s winning margin was 13.643s after a 22.457s lead in Bahrain.
Horner told Sportskeeda: “Well, the cars did converge because Checo was eight seconds or nine seconds behind his teammate at the time at the chequered flag.
“So, it was a very strong team performance today. It was unfortunate we got the five-second penalty. But, thankfully, we had enough in hand that it wasn’t going to challenge.”
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