Red Bull boss Christian Horner asks for an FIA investigation after Sergio Perez loses the podium to Mercedes’ George Russell.
2022 French Grand Prix is done and dusted. We got to watch another race filled with action and drama. From Leclerc DNF to Verstappen 7th season victory. From Mercedes double podium to Sainz’s recovery drive.
However, Red Bull boss Christian Horner is not happy with a late move by George Russell.
On lap 50 of the Grand Prix, a Virtual Safety Car was triggered due to the on-track stoppage of Zhou Guanyu’s Alfa Romeo. At that moment, Perez was in P3 chased by George Russell.
However, as the VSC ended, Russell caught Perez off-guard and zoomed past the Mexican to take the last podium place. With just 4 laps left Perez tried to chase down the 24-year-old. However, Russell kept Perez at bay to secure his 4th podium of the season.
What Christian Horner claims?
According to Horner, Perez got data about VSC ending late in his car. The data is crucial for the driver to know when to speed up or slow down. However, Horner claims Perez was not getting the “correct” data in his car.
Horner claimed:
“Just talking with him, he said he wasn’t getting the delta in his car, so he was bang on his delta. George either pre-empted it but was within the delta, or maybe the information to the two cars was different.”
Concurrently Russell timed the VSC ending perfectly and caught Perez off guard to sneak past him to secure P3.
Christian Horner has demanded FIA to “explore” this issue to prevent future incidents like these.
Horner said:
“We have to go and explore that. Yeah, it was frustrating, because I think he would have had the pace to hold him off for a double podium.”
Perez also supported Horner’s statement claiming that VSC definitely “interfered with the result” and that “this shouldn’t be the case”. VSC shouldn’t affect the result.
However, Russell claimed after the race that he had intentionally slowed down and then speed up at the right time to catch Perez off-guard.
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