Former Ferrari and Williams team manager Peter Windsor believes Mexico won’t be happy with Red Bull, after the Austrians allowed Max Verstappen to perform an undercut on Sergio Perez at the Dutch Grand Prix.
Sunday’s race was a chaotic one, which saw a sudden downpour take place at the end of the opening lap.
Having started from seventh, Red Bull opted to take a gamble and pitted Perez for Intermediates at the end of the opening lap, a move which worked a treat.
He ended up inheriting the race lead once the leaders – including Max Verstappen – pitted for Intermediates a lap later, proving that Red Bull’s gamble was absolutely the right decision.
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Perez led by around 10 seconds, although Verstappen quickly reduced the Mexican’s advantage.
When the rain stopped, Zandvoort dried relatively quickly, which saw all the drivers return to dry compound tyres.
Controversially, Red Bull opted to pit Verstappen first, despite Perez having been leading the race.
Unsurprisingly, Verstappen undercut his team-mate, who fell to second when he pitted for a dry compound.
Verstappen went on to claim his ninth consecutive victory and his 11th of 2023, whilst Perez tumbled to fourth following a five-second time penalty for speeding in the pit-lane.
The Mexican also crashed twice in the closing stages following another huge downpour.
His first incident was into the barrier at Turn 1, and the second incident was as he entered the pits, where he hit the pit wall.
Prior to the circuit drying and Verstappen being pitted before Checo, Windsor pondered whether the Mexican would actually win the race, given that he had a “serious lead”.
“Sergio was driving in the lead and had a decent lead over Max,” Windsor said on his YouTube channel.
“So you think: maybe Sergio is going to win this Grand Prix, this is a serious lead. Given the conditions, this was actually better than pole.
Verstappen was supposedly pitted first to cover Fernando Alonso, who was in third at the time but ended up finishing second.
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Windsor is convinced that what Red Bull did to Checo will have angered his fans in Mexico, whilst the former team manager also reckons the driver was on the radio asking why Verstappen was favoured.
“That won’t have gone down too well in Mexico,” Windsor added.
“I’m sure Sergio was on the radio: ‘Why did you give him that undercut?’ And whether or not that was planned by Red Bull to get Max in the lead, that it just worked out that way or that Max drove a great outlap…”