Life at Red Bull is certainly getting no easier as of late, with multiple things having taken place seemingly since Max Verstappen sealed his second Drivers’ Championship.
Everything was going beautifully in 2022 for Red Bull, until the Japanese Grand Prix concluded.
It was at Suzuka where Verstappen sealed his second consecutive title, one that nobody thought he’d actually won.
It wasn’t until an F1 official delivered the news to Verstappen that he had claimed the crown, that people began to celebrate the 25-year-old’s achievement.
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This moment, though, also signifies a point where tensions started to build at the Austrian side, with it having been announced the following day that Red Bull had exceeded the 2021 budget cap.
From this point on the side were ridiculed with “pretty disgusting” online abuse, which was only halted momentarily prior to qualifying at the United States Grand Prix following the tragic death of Red Bull co-founder Dietrich Mateschitz.
After the US Grand Prix it was then announced what punishment the side would face for exceeding the cap, a penalty team boss Christian Horner labelled as “draconian”.
Fast forward to last Sunday at the Brazilian Grand Prix and it was the drivers who were at it; however, the situation in question arose through Verstappen’s doing.
In the closing stages of the race at Interlagos, Verstappen was given permission to overtake Sergio Pérez for P6, following a messy race.
The Dutchman was informed, though, that unless he could overtake either Fernando Alonso or Charles Leclerc, then he’d need to give Checo the place back.
Verstappen failed to do either of these things, resulting in the double World Champion being asked “what happened?” over the team radio.
The team’s star driver insisted that he had his “reasons” for not giving his team-mate the place as instructed, despite the Mexican battling for second in the standings.
That ‘reason’ that Verstappen referred to, is believed to be in relation to an incident that took place earlier in the year at the Monaco Grand Prix.
According to reports, Verstappen is certain that Pérez crashed on purpose in Q3, to stop the Dutchman claiming pole position.
Telemetry of Pérez’s crash is very questionable, with a bizarre throttle input visible.
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FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem has revealed that if concrete evidence is supplied to the governing body then the issue will be investigated.
Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has admitted that he’s hoping the issue isn’t investigated, due to not only believing the Mexican didn’t crash on purpose but also that Red Bull have endured “enough PR crises”.
“We’ve had enough PR crises over the last few weeks around that team and we don’t need another one,” Chris Medland quoted Wolff as saying.