After the GP of the Netherlands, Sergio Perez made it clear that he wants Red Bull to investigate the pit stop strategy used. The Mexican finds it remarkable that Verstappen came in a lap earlier than him while he was in the lead himself. As a result, Perez also lost the lead in the race to Verstappen.
Perez came in for intermediates on the first lap of the race, a decision that was perfect. The Mexican, who had started the race in seventh place, took the lead of the race. After all, Verstappen only pitted a lap later, but on his intermediates Verstappen was a lot faster than Perez and he quickly approached his Mexican teammate.
After Verstappen had made up about ten seconds behind Perez, the call followed to call him in first of both drivers to switch to slicks. Perez only got the soft tire compound fitted to his car one lap later and Verstappen’s ‘undercut’ lost him the lead in the race.
Perez clearly showed over the on-board radio that he was surprised that Verstappen had done an undercut. Even after the race, the Mexican asked himself questions about the strategy used by Red Bull. He therefore wants the strategic decisions to be reviewed.
“It’s a scenario where I think the team has more information than we have as a driver,” Perez said after the race. “Obviously it’s something we need to look at at the meeting with the team. I am sure there must be a reason why this was decided.”
Perez was also asked why he was so much slower than Verstappen on the intermediates. According to Perez, it was because he was trying to take care of his intermediates. After all, even more rain was predicted and he anticipated that he might have to drive longer with the intermediates.
“We expected more rain, the team told me more rain was coming,” said Perez. “So it was important to do that. The track was rather on the drier side and if I had pushed I would have completely destroyed the intermediates.”