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Did Perez get the worse tactics?
After crossing the finish line, conspiracy theorists confronted the team leadership with the accusation that Sergio Perez had gotten the worse tactics. The Mexican was put on the medium tires at the start, while Verstappen started with the hard rubber. What no one could have foreseen: A lot of rubber was washed off the track by the nightly showers. In addition, the asphalt on the Sunday of the race did not heat up as much as it did in practice.
Both factors contributed to the fact that the drivers struggled with graining on the softer compounds at the beginning. Those who had mounted the yellow-marked Pirellis with full tanks in the first stint had to slow down noticeably in order to avoid the dreaded rubbing of the surface. Anyone who saved the mediums for the second stint could end up gasping more aggressively with the lighter car and the more rubberized track.
Sergio Perez had no antidote to Verstappen that day.
However, this development was not foreseeable, emphasized Red Bull team boss Christian Horner: "Our simulation said that medium-hard was the faster option. We expected that Max would only benefit from a late safety car.
"If you look at the If you look at the starting tires of the cars in the front rows, we weren't the only ones with this assessment."
Perez later complained that he wasted a lot of time, especially in the first stint, because he was driving in overdrive.
"Maybe he could have taken more risks. Max was his only opponent," Horner mused. "It's easy to say afterwards, of course. But I think Max's pace was so strong that he would have won with any strategy today."
Analysis of the stints on the hard tires proves Horner right. Verstappen somehow managed to plow through half the field and not overwhelm the tyres. At the end of his first stint, he was sometimes faster with old tires than Perez with much fresher soles of the same compound.
Also
Perez: Verstappen’s performance not reachable for me
https://www.grandprix247.com/2023/05...chable-for-me/
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