Red Bull team boss Christian Horner asserts the “damage was done” to Sergio Perez’s chances of winning the Miami Grand Prix during his opening stint of the race.
Despite starting from pole position and eight places ahead of Max Verstappen on the grid, Perez was surpassed by his team-mate late in the race to deny the Mexican successive Formula 1 wins for the first time in his career.
With Verstappen down the order after a late red flag in qualifying denied him the opportunity to set a lap time in Q3, strategies were split at Red Bull as the Dutchman’s side of the garage opted for the hard tyre while Perez started on the medium compound.
Although Verstappen’s choice turned out to be the victorious one, Horner states that the simulations ahead of the race demonstrated Perez’s strategy was the optimal plan to run.
“Checo starting on the mediums, we felt that from a simulation point of view, the medium-hard was the quicker strategy,” he explained. “Hence why obviously he took that strategy for the race.
“Max was keen to run the alternative strategy, starting on the hard, which had certainly in the simulation world, it wasn’t quite as quick, but it benefitted if there was a Safety Car in the latter part of the race.”
Having not gained a single place on the opening lap, Verstappen soon scythed his way through the pack to sit second after 15 laps and still only a few seconds behind Perez in the race lead.
Verstappen rapidly closed up to within just over a second of the sister car by the time Perez came into the pits to change onto the hard tyre at the end of Lap 21, and Horner believes this represented the key turning point in the destination of the race win.
Perez on fresh tires was unable to reduce the advantage his long-running team-mate had at any stage, resulting in Verstappen only being 1.2s behind when he eventually made his stop on Lap 46 and a simple overtake into Turn 1 following a couple of laps later.
Horner believes Verstappen’s supreme consistency on his original starting rubber in the middle part of the race ultimately made the difference between which Red Bull driver took their third win of 2023.
“I think what was truly impressive today was Checo did a great job converting the start, but Max never dropped more than five-and-a-half seconds behind him, despite being in the traffic,” Horner acknowledged. “And then efficiently made the progress through the traffic. And on that first stint, when Checo pitted, I think he was just over a second, second and a half behind.
“And then the real crux of the race was Checo pitted on Lap 20, the next 22 laps of Max on the hard tire, it was basically a race against the stopwatch. And on 20 lap older tires, that’s where he was truly impressive, to match the lap times, sometimes better the lap times, of what Checo was able to do. That was where he won the race.
“So when he did eventually pit with 12 laps to go onto the medium compound tire, he was within one and a half seconds when he left the pit lane.
“Then with the grip advantage that he had, they obviously raced hard but fairly, but the damage had already been done through the middle part of the stint.”
The Red Bull boss later assessed that Perez lost the race by failing to build a big enough buffer at the front when Verstappen was encountering traffic in the early laps.
Horner is confident that with hindsight the polesitter would have elected to push the medium tyre harder, citing Fernando Alonso’s long stint as evidence it would have held up.
He added: “I think Checo, again, he drove a very strong race today, particularly on the hard tyre. I think the damage was done to Checo in that first stint, that he didn’t have enough of a buffer [against Verstappen] for later in the race.”
“The first 10 laps, he was very much managing the pace, and I think he was nervous about the front right, and as we started to see the other teams starting to get a bit of graining, I think he was driving well within himself and the car to protect that front right. And then he started to push after the first 10 laps and then started to build a lead.
“Probably with 20-20 hindsight, if he looked at the race again, he’d push a bit harder in that first stint because the medium tire actually turned out to be a very good tyre, as you saw with Fernando going a long way.”
The 38th F1 win of Verstappen’s career has seen him extend his Drivers’ Championship lead back up to 14 points over Perez ahead of a return to Europe in two weeks.
But Horner isn’t discounting Perez’s chances yet and underlines there is a long way to go.
“There’s still a long, long way to go,” he emphasised. “There’s only 14 points between the two drivers, we’ve got 18 races to go and five sprint races.
“There’s still an awful lot that can happen. I’m sure he was disappointed not to convert it into a victory, but he’s still taken away very valuable points.
“I don’t think there’s anybody that would have beaten Max today.”
