Seeing his decline in form, it was even suggested to Sergio Pérez – at least in the international press – that he may not only lose his seat at Red Bull, but may even announce his retirement at the end of the year at the weekend’s Mexico City Grand Prix. The apparent conflicts with his teammate didn’t help his situation either, but even Max Verstappen, who (also) won this year’s world championship title, firmly denied that their relationship had really deteriorated.
Despite this, Pérez’s situation and future are also of concern to many during his home weekend, including Lewis Hamilton, who is strengthening the camp of those who believe that Red Bull is deliberately hindering the Mexican driver.
“I have never experienced what Checo is going through now, but as a competitor I understand the psychological and mental pressure he is under,” said the Fox Sports the seven-time World Cup winner of his Mexican channel. “I don’t think his team supports him that seriously. Even if I don’t mean the whole team, because there are many people in one team, there are some people who definitely didn’t help him psychologically, including one of the spokesmen in particular.”
Lewis Hamilton (Fotó: Clive Mason/Formula 1/Getty Images)
Although he did not name the “spokesman”, Hamilton was certainly referring to Helmut Marko, Red Bull’s consultant, who, although he denied that an ultimatum had been given to Pérez, several of his statements regarding him stirred up a lot of dust. For one of these utterances, Marko was officially warned after incurring the wrath of an entire continent by saying that his swing in form was “South American”. (sic!) can be explained by its origin.
Christian Horner, the Red Bull team boss, denied in Mexico that Pérez would retire, but he did not leave Hamilton’s statement unanswered. “It’s very nice of Lewis to be so concerned and attentive to him,” Horner said. “However, a few weeks ago he questioned the competitiveness of Max’s teammates…”
Christian Horner (Fotó: Clive Mason/Getty Images)
As previously reported by Vezess, the Mercedes driver made an open criticism of Verstappen’s in-house rivals even after his contract extension announced at the beginning of autumn, implicitly questioning the Dutchman’s qualities. Then Verstappen also spoke on the issue, but according to him, his former rival is merely jealous of his current success.
After “confronting” Hamilton with his statement just two months ago, Horner spoke in detail about Pérez’s situation: “He has a great relationship with the team, as well as with his teammate. We would like him to be second in the championship, because we have not yet achieved a double victory in the individual overall”, he was quoted as saying by Formula1.com.
2023-10-28 11:06:04
#Hamilton #Red #Bull #spoke #Pérez
