The air is getting thinner for the two shaky candidates in the Red Bull camp. At least Sergio Perez and Nyck de Vries were once again unable to advertise themselves in qualifying at Silverstone and both retired in Q1. Perez was 15th after the disqualification of Valtteri Bottas, de Vries 18th.
Especially with Perez, the unsuccessful streak continues. While teammate Max Verstappen took pole position for the fifth time in a row, Perez did not make it into the top 10 once (!) in the same period. In Great Britain, Q1 was even over, where he beat Q2 by 0.019 seconds missed.
“He has to get that under control,” said Red Bull’s motorsport consultant Helmut Marko after the session on “Sky”. “If one is on pole position and the other on P16 (before Bottas’ penalty; editor’s note), that doesn’t quite go together.”
However, it was “quite unfortunate” for the Mexican at Silverstone, as Marko says. Perez was the first driver to pit exit during the red flag in Q1 and had to wait a long time before the session resumed after Kevin Magnussen’s Haas coasted out.
“We wanted to have him on the track as soon as possible because there was always a chance of rain,” explains Marko in the ‘ORF’. “The fact that the salvage took so long that his tires had cooled down completely, which wasn’t factored in.”
Eight minutes and 15 seconds at a red light
In fact, the Red Bull driver had to wait a whopping eight minutes and 15 seconds at the pit stop light. “That was a bit unfortunate,” Perez argues. “I couldn’t get enough temperature in the tires and I’ve already had a few problems in the car in these conditions.”
Perez was the first on the track to temporarily set a new best time, but was pushed back so far by all the drivers behind that he didn’t make the cut for Q2.
Although it was once again special circumstances that prevented Perez from achieving a good result, his team-mate showed that it is possible with his fifth consecutive pole. “He has to get that under control,” demands Marko.
“But it’s a weakness, it was in his past. But now it occurs too often. He has to work on it. We’ll work on it, too,” he says.
Sergio Perez has “bonus” at Red Bull
Nevertheless, the Mexican’s seat still doesn’t wobble even after the fifth bad qualifying session in a row: “He has the bonus that he always delivers really good races,” defends Marko and also sees a good chance in Silverstone that Perez will still score a lot of points on Sunday . “With our DRS advantage, that should be possible.”
And while Nyck de Vries could actually be replaced soon because Red Bull is running out of patience, the situation with Perez seems to be different: “Perez is second in the World Cup and is delivering very good races. That distinguishes him from Nyck de Vries “Marko clarifies on ‘Sky’. “There is currently no need for action. In addition, there is no one who could replace him.”
At the same time, this statement also jeopardizes de Vries’ future at AlphaTauri. The Dutchman needs to deliver on the circuits he knows well, but in Silverstone qualifying he lost his tenth qualifying duel (counting the two shootouts) to Yuki Tsunoda and set the slowest time apart from the stranded Magnussen.
Formula 1: Nyck de Vries defends himself against criticism
“I don’t think it’s a very fair assessment and representation of the entire grid under these conditions,” defends the rookie. Because he and Tsunoda were in tenth and eleventh place at the time of the stoppage.
“And then the session becomes a one-lap shootout when the conditions change. We waited three minutes and then you have no temperature at all,” he complains. “And the later you are at the traffic light and go onto the track, the better,” said de Vries, who left the track as the fifth driver.
In the last chicane in particular, he lost all his time when he misbraked. “But I didn’t have any temperature in the tires at the beginning of the lap and then you’re not 100 percent sure to really push,” he says.
“I’m just disappointed it didn’t work out. I think we were a little more competitive than we showed.”
He also doesn’t know whether he would have made it into Q2 without the red flag: “I don’t have a crystal ball. It just went the way it did. I have to accept that.”