“What’s Wrong With Max?”: Furious Sergio Perez Lashes Out at Verstappen Over Ugly Tactics

Lewis Hamilton & Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel & Mark Webber are the greatest examples of intra-team rivalry. As an F1 driver, one of the most important goals of a season is to beat your own teammate. While Sergio Perez hasn’t been anywhere near Verstappen in the last 3 races, the Sprint in Austria provided an opportunity. However, Max Verstappen’s ugly tactics left Checo furious as both drivers lashed out on the radio. What did they say?

After the disappointment of qualifying for the main race, Sergio Perez finally managed to qualify for P2 for the Sprint race behind Max Verstappen. It would’ve been interesting to see how Perez fared next to Verstappen. However, as the rain gods would have it, the start of the race was wet. Both Red Bull drivers started on intermediate tires and got a good start. However, out of turn 1, Checo got somewhat of a better exit and overtook Max Verstappen.

Nonetheless, things only got spicy from there. While overtaking the Dutchman, Perez pushed his teammate onto the grass leaving no room whatsoever. Max Verstappen, who was furious, radioed his team “He pushed me off man . What the f**k”. The championship leader then went on to dive up the inside of Sergio Perez on the very next corner. But Max was a tad bit late on the brakes, missed the apex, and caused both Red Bull drivers to drift wide. Then Checo Radioed the team “What’s wrong with Max, man?”

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Definitely not the kind of teamwork Red Bull would expect from their drivers. Nonetheless, the race only went downhill from there for Sergio Perez who finished a pit stop behind Max Verstappen.

Why wasn’t Sergio Perez able to fight back with Max Verstappen? 

Verstappen’s move into Turn 3 meant Checo was overtaken by Nico Hulkenberg and it was only downhill from there. Stuck behind Hulkenberg, Checo lost almost a second a lap to Max Verstappen. By the time he overtook him, the Dutchman was long gone. However, even after getting in the clean air, Perez lost time to Verstappen who was punching in the fastest lap one after the other.

According to @junaidsamodein_’s Tweet, during the post-race interview, Checo said “We had a good start, and then had a fight with Max and ended up losing a position to Nico. He was very strong in the first few laps, and it was hard to get by him.”

What do you think? Is Sergio Perez good enough for that Red Bull seat? Or someone like Lando Norris would be more competitive?

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