Ex-Ferrari and Williams team manager Peter Windsor has responded to claims made by one of Sergio Perez’s sponsors, which insist that Max Verstappen’s car is quicker than the Mexican’s.
After a strong start to the season, Perez has struggled alongside Verstappen in 2023.
The Mexican sits 125 points behind the reigning World Champion following last weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, where he finished second behind Verstappen.
Verstappen’s win in Belgium marked his eighth in a row and his 10th of the season, whereas Perez has won just twice.
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He simply can’t match Verstappen’s pace currently, with one of his sponsors believing that it’s due to Red Bull sabotaging him.
It was claimed after last Sunday’s race by Artura Elias Ayub, Carlos Slim’s son-in-law, that “Verstappen can’t make such a difference”, that “such a difference can’t be made only by a driver”, meaning “Max’s car has to be much quicker than the other” raced in by Perez.
Windsor has decided to address the claims which he believes are not “real”, despite the fact Mexican media have “jumped” at them.
“There were definite moments, particularly when Max and Checo were together when you could see the difference in the corners,” Windsor said during a YouTube stream.
“Not that I normally get involved in this sort of stuff, but I think it’s probably quite a big deal.
“Now there’s this guy who is the son-in-law of Carlos Slim, who is [one of] the wealthiest men in the world, Mexican, and through Checo is one of the sponsors of the Red Bull team, and after Spa he did a big TV interview on Fox Latin America, and these are some of the things he said.
“‘Verstappen can’t make such a different’, ‘such a difference can’t be made only by a driver’, and ‘”Max’s car has to be much quicker than the other’.
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“That’s caused, as you would imagine, the Mexican media has jumped on that and they’re really going for it and Checo I’m sure will in his own quiet way be fanning the flames in the background.
“But none of it’s real, and even if it was real, well even if you wanted to try to understand the point of view where, let’s put it this way, where and how are they actually messing around with Checo’s car and not giving him a proper race car? What are they doing?
“Apparently they think they’re giving him old bits, old parts and the car’s overweight. But that’s it really, I can’t think they can think of any more than that.”