Method 1 followers have been handled to an unfamiliar sight in Baku as Max Verstappen was outqualified by Purple Bull team-mate Sergio Perez for the primary time in 33 races, earlier than being nicely crushed within the race. How did the world champion’s weekend go so mistaken?
It was significantly odd that the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ended up being Perez’s finest race in 18 months, and that the Mexican was genuinely in rivalry for the win when his in any other case dominant team-mate Verstappen struggled.
Baku got here off the again of a bruising interval for Purple Bull as automotive steadiness points launched in Could precipitated a slide F1’s previously dominant group struggled to arrest, with Verstappen now winless for seven races whereas McLaren, Ferrari and Mercedes all grabbed victories.
Having pushed a “monster” in Monza, Baku supplied glimpses that Purple Bull had understood the crippling dealing with points that originally derailed Perez’s marketing campaign after which began affecting Verstappen.
Perez had been on the again foot after Friday follow at most weekends this season, struggling to seek out options to show the automotive set-up round to swimsuit his fashion. However aided by a tweaked ground design, in Baku the Mexican was a lot happier and that confidence prolonged to qualifying the place he claimed fourth, outperforming Verstappen for the primary time for the reason that 2023 Miami Grand Prix.
However whereas Perez discovered a strong set-up, Verstappen’s facet of the storage went in a special course and based on the Dutchman had “tipped it over the sting” of what was driveable.
“As quickly as I went out in Q1, I simply felt the automotive took a step again,” Verstappen defined on Saturday. “We made some modifications and the automotive simply turned extremely unpredictable and tough.
Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing RB20
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
“That precipitated a whole lot of bouncing at the back of the automotive when turning out and in of a nook. I had an excessive amount of oversteer, and you do not need that on a road circuit.”
Due to F1’s parc ferme guidelines, Verstappen was largely caught with what he had, with the suspension set-up specifically being frozen as any modifications would have meant a pitlane begin.
It did not take lengthy for Verstappen’s points to resurface throughout the race. He craftily handed Mercedes’ George Russell firstly for fifth, however then struggled to maintain up with the tempo of Ferrari man Carlos Sainz in entrance, complaining over the group radio that the automotive had “zero chew” and struggled to navigate Baku’s tight 90-degree corners.
Following his solely pitstop he was then unable to move hard-tyre starter Lando Norris, being overtaken by Russell as a substitute. After Norris’ later cease, the Briton clawed again a pitstop value of race time to simply repass Verstappen for what turned out to be fourth place.
“I feel we simply paid the worth with the change that we made into qualifying,” Verstappen defined. “That made it simply actually tough to drive.
“The automotive was leaping round loads. The wheels have been coming off the bottom within the low-speed corners, so when you do not have a contact patch with the tarmac, it’s extremely tough.
“You win and lose as a group. We thought it might be course to enter and on the finish, it wasn’t.”
Christian Horner, Group Principal, Purple Bull Racing, Max Verstappen, Purple Bull Racing
Photograph by: Purple Bull Content material Pool
Verstappen identified the brand new ground design did enhance his automotive behaviour earlier than the mistaken set-up change, so the weekend wasn’t an unmitigated catastrophe within the wider context of the season and Purple Bull’s long-term efficiency.
“The automotive did really feel a bit higher than what we had earlier than, the general behaviour is healthier. It is simply that you just at all times attempt to make modifications to make the automotive even higher however sadly what we did made it worse,” he stated.
“I had the reference to the automotive however then sadly with the change we made we misplaced it once more. However the race confirmed that with Checo, when he was a bit happier, the automotive was performing a bit higher. We’re in that combat.”
Group principal Christian Horner instructed Verstappen’s set-up selection had a detrimental affect on his tyre put on, particularly when he was caught behind hard-tyre starters Alex Albon and Norris.
“Checo’s automotive was very fast, I feel we’d have launched one thing to Max’s automotive that didn’t work as nicely and possibly broken the tyres quite a bit preventing in that group for such a protracted time period,” Horner informed Sky Sports activities F1.
“For those who take a look at Russell’s stint he began very, very slowly after which simply builds into it and has a greater tyre on the finish, so sure, actually very, very irritating.”
“There will be a giant autopsy to see what the variances between the 2 automobiles are, that are clearly fairly refined. However he was not as comfy as Checo was, so clearly we have to get into that to grasp why.”
Provided that team-mate Oscar Piastri received the race, Baku should really feel like an even bigger alternative missed for Norris than it was for Verstappen. However each level goes to depend, particularly as F1 heads to Purple Bull’s Achilles heel in Singapore this week, which is able to doubtless be one other spherical of harm limitation.
However regardless of Norris beating him to fourth from fifteenth on the grid, Verstappen stated he wasn’t too upset by conceding three factors to the McLaren driver given the calamitous automotive behaviour he handled. “It is most likely optimistic for me,” he added because the hole got here right down to 59 factors with seven races remaining.
“I’d have preferred to increase the hole, however with our race, I am so completely happy that it was solely that.
“What can I do for Singapore? Nicely, we’re attempting to optimise the set-up to grasp what we did mistaken right here. I do not suppose it should be our greatest monitor, naturally, however we’ll see. It would shock us.
“It is by no means good to see [McLaren leading the constructors’ standings]. However the combat is just not over but. We’ll attempt to get that again.”
