Perez told to worry for Red Bull future after Verstappen wins Belgian GP

31 July 2023 , 06:00

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Sergio Perez was outclassed by Max Verstappen at Spa-Francorchamps (Image: Getty Images)

Sergio Perez has "a problem" at Red Bull after being resoundingly beaten to Belgian Grand Prix victory by Max Verstappen.

That's the view of Formula 1 journalist and former Williams and Ferrari team manager Peter Windsor. He expected victory to be a walk in the park for the Mexican, given his position on the grid.

Perez lined up alongside pole-sitter Charles Leclerc on the front row. And even the Ferrari racer knew he wasn't likely to keep the Red Bull behind him for long.

That proved to be the case as Perez had the lead of the race on the first lap. But that was as good as his afternoon got at Spa-Francorchamps, as he was back down in second place by lap 17 having been reeled in and passed by Verstappen.

His Red Bull team-mate had started sixth because of a five-place grid penalty. But he made light work of cutting through those ahead of him and found getting past the other RB19 easy as well.

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Verstappen finished 22 seconds ahead and could have been further up the road had he not been ordered to manage his tyres. And, based on what he said prior to the race, Windsor thinks Perez should be concerned.

He said: "A big opportunity for Perez finally, after all this time, to get back possibly to winning a Grand Prix again. He's in a Red Bull RB19, he's around Spa, he's on the front row – if Sergio doesn't win this one then he has a problem, because it shouldn't be that difficult for him around Spa in a car that good."

Speaking after the race, Perez admitted he was powerless to stop his team-mate. "It was a good race for the team. We had a great start, so managed to get through Charles, which was one of the targets for today," he said in his parc ferme interview.

Verstappen's victory streak now stands at eight races, while Perez hasn't won since Azerbaijan in April (HOCH ZWEI/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

"From then on I was just doing my own race and then Max came through in the second stint pretty fast, so nothing I could have done there. And then afterwards it was just about making sure we brought it home safely without too much damage to the car."

And team boss Christian Horner explained how Verstappen was able to catch so quickly. He said: "I think the medium tyre he wasn't as comfortable on as Max and it was after that first pit stop that Max really came alive and then it was a question of managing things to the end of the race.

"Max got his head down, Sergio was managing. We were concerned about tyre degradation, particularly in that last stint on the soft tyre. We'd seen some deg on the first stint. So it was two different approaches to that final stint."

Daniel Moxon