F1 | GP Azerbaijan, Perez: in the right place at the right time

“I want to start by thanking my entire team. They gave me a huge opportunity. It wasn't the start to the season we were hoping for, I found my adjustment period more difficult than expected, but we worked hard from day one with the engineers at the factory and achieved a great result for the team. We showed flashes of speed here and there. We had an amazing race, so I'm extremely satisfied with today's result. This definitely gives a big boost of confidence to myself and also to my team, to my side of the garage.” This is how Sergio Perez described his emotions after winning the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, his second career success and the first with Red Bull. A great satisfaction for the Mexican talent who, although aided by the withdrawal of his teammate due to a problem with the left rear tyre, represents a step forward in that growth path that Sergio had imposed on himself before the start of the championship, aware that a period of adaptation would be required before being able to exploit the potential of the RB16B.

A journey that has not yet ended, but for which Perez is continuing to record progress race after race, understanding the limits and strengths of the car, especially in qualifying, an element that on several occasions at the start of the world championship has not allowed him to collect what he could. The same was seen in Baku on Saturday where, after proving extremely competitive in the free practice sessions, Checo was unable to maximize the result in the Saturday afternoon session, partly due to an error in turn four during his fastest lap , the part due to the display of the red flag during the last attempt where he managed to get a good trail with which to improve his time and climb positions in the standings. The initial sixth place, however, could be considered a good starting point to think about aiming for the podium, especially considering the race pace that the Mexican had shown on Friday during the simulations compared to his closest rivals.

When the traffic lights went out, the Red Bull driver proved to be very clever in taking advantage of the duels involving his opponents, in particular the one between Pierre Gasly and Carlos Sainz. Remaining on the innermost line, Perez had managed to overtake the Spaniard from Ferrari, who had had to widen to react to the maneuver of the Frenchman from AlphaTauri, who had extended his braking to defend himself following a clutch release that was anything but exceptional. Once the overtaking on Sainz was completed, only a few meters ahead Sergio would also appear in the transalpine's mirrors, perhaps even in a way that was not entirely desired, but certainly effective. In fact, when braking for turn two, the Red Bull driver applied a rather deep braking step, thus forcing Gasly to open his trajectory slightly to avoid making contact. For the AlphaTauri driver, this had proven to be a significant problem, as that minimal change in line had forced him to miss the apex in the middle of the corner, thus worsening his exit and losing the train of his rivals who were in front of him. A fatal combination for the Frenchman who, in fact, before braking at turn four would have been overtaken by the Mexican himself, capable of exploiting that wake effect which, however, Pierre could not count on or, at least, not with the same effectiveness.

In the subsequent steps, the objectives were multiple: on the one hand, to close the gap that had formed during the first lap from the leading trio, especially considering the tempting opportunity to overtake a Leclerc who seemed anything but capable of maintaining a position for long of the podium, especially when he would have lost the chance to use the DRS. On the other hand, managing tires and fuel with the lift and coast technique, very useful on a circuit that has always required high fuel usage given its multiple straights and the high speeds reached for such a prolonged period. An attack that had come during the seventh lap, when, after having charged the batteries in the best possible way to exploit them on the long straight, Sergio had managed to overtake the Monegasque from Ferrari, who had already had to deal with it on the previous lap without success with the other RB16B, that of Max Verstappen. Having reached the podium area, the track engineer intervened again via radio to suggest to the driver from Guadalajara to return to performing lift and coast techniques and that the idea was to continue with strategy "A", perhaps extending the stint a few laps, but always keeping an eye on the opponents, in order to understand their moves. From a balance point of view, for Perez the greatest difficulties were found above all in the traction phase, an element which the Mexican had complained about on several occasions during the weekend, underlining how, however, the behavior of the car was rather constant, therefore simple to manage for the rest of the stint.

What changed the cards on the table, however, was Hamilton's return to the pits during the eleventh lap, which thus gave rise to a cascade sequence. The Mercedes team, in fact, had decided to anticipate the moves of their rivals, recalling the Englishman to protect themselves from a possible undercut that Red Bull could have attempted shortly thereafter, counting on the possibility of diversifying the strategy with Verstappen and Perez, as well as their own it happened to the German company three years ago when they were able to play with two strikers against Vettel. What the strategists could not take into account, however, was the fact that a slow pit stop of more than four seconds ruined what had been built, leaving a great opportunity for the Dutch Red Bull to take the lead and the Mexican to fight for the conquest of second position. The pit wall of the Anglo-Austrian team had wasted no time and already in the next lap had decided to let Verstappen return to the pits, in order to replace the tires and return to the track with a small, but precious margin of over three seconds which would have also protected from possible use of the wake to get closer. An extremely intelligent move, as, aware of the W12's difficulties in getting the tires up to temperature, it would have been essential to make the most of that window before Hamilton started to improve his split times.

That particularly slow pit stop, however, had also left the door open to a possible overcut by Perez who, in the meantime, had remained on the track for two further laps, also setting record times in various sectors: a change of pace that had come together with the request from the track engineer to momentarily stop the use of lift and coast techniques, modify the Power Unit mappings to have more power, concentrate exclusively on pace and extracting the maximum from your car. Despite a not particularly quick stop, thanks to those two extra laps Perez was able to get back on track after his pit stop in front of his British rival but, undoubtedly, the challenge would not have ended there. Thanks to the difficulties in the warm-up phase of the harder tyres, due in part to a track with rather unique characteristics of its kind and to the lowering of temperatures compared to the rest of the weekend, the first two laps would have been vital to maintain the second position and, precisely for this reason, the Mexican had quickly exploited the hybrid boosts, in order to keep Hamilton at a distance at the exit of turn sixteen. On a track like that of Baku, the wake effect on the long straight is in fact noticeable at a greater distance than what would happen on other circuits, so being able to put a sufficient gap between himself and the seven-time world champion from the first meters to protect yourself from possible attacks. A task that the Red Bull representative had carried out in the best possible way, making the difference in the castle area, the most tortuous one where the effect of the dirty air could penalize the W12 behind him.

After he was able to stabilize his lead at around two seconds, the team radioed to remind him to start applying the lift and coast techniques again to conserve fuel, as well as to advise him to take care in the application of the last 20% of the accelerator in the traction phases, which could have put stress on the tires with which, according to forecasts, the Mexican should have reached the checkered flag. A challenge that on paper, also according to what Pirelli suggested before the race, seemed anything but impossible, given that the harder compound should have offered good durability. Tires which, within a few laps, would have taken center stage and headlines, thanks to Lance Stroll's accident on the long main straight following a loss of pressure in the left rear, which is certainly not among the most stressed of this season. track as would be, on the contrary, the one on the right. According to the first analyzes carried out by the Italian tire dealer, the puncture was caused by debris, but it was clear that at that moment little information was available considering the impossibility of carrying out more in-depth analyzes and the lack of warning signals from the sensors responsible for checking the health of the roofs. This had pushed the race direction to allow the safety car to enter the track, even though in this case too a rather strange and rather dangerous situation had arisen: if the marshals present on the track had actually highlighted the presence of the double yellow flags and the entry of the Safety Car, the same could not be said for the FIA ​​warning system and for the light panels placed at the side of the track, which had remained off, thus sending the drivers into confusion. Some, encouraged by their track engineers who had not received any communication from the FIA, had advised their drivers to continue pushing, while others had raised their foot early following the instructions of the course marshals. Among the confused riders was Perez himself, who had slowed down slightly while waiting for information from the team. In such a situation, however, one wonders what could have happened if he had slowed down further and if Hamilton had attempted an attack: although Red Bull would rightly underline the presence of the double yellow flags, on the other hand the lack of reports on light panels and its car dashes could have set a dangerous precedent.

Once the period behind the safety car was over, the restart would have represented a key moment in the race. The two Red Bulls in front against Hamilton, ready to exploit any opportunity to overtake his rivals and gain important points in the drivers' standings. Taking advantage of Verstappen's decision to delay as much as possible the moment in which he returns to the accelerator, thus depriving his rivals of the opportunity to exploit the slipstream on the long straight, for Perez the greatest danger would have been the acceleration leading into turn three , where the British could have made himself threatening. An attempt that Hamilton had not missed, trying to join his Red Bull rival to thus gain second position, but to which the Mexican had responded admirably, making the most of his teammate's wake and then defending the inside in the last phase. A fundamental maneuver, because this had guaranteed him the opportunity to exploit the castle area to gain precious tenths to then play on the longest straight stretch of all, where Hamilton would undoubtedly have come closer. So it had been and those few, but vital, tenths of a second recovered in the most tortuous area on a Hamilton who was having difficulty getting the tires up to temperature, had meant that Perez had a sufficient gap exiting turn sixteen to defend himself again and maintain the second position behind his teammate. “It was tough, lap after lap. Normally, when you're in free air you can conserve your tires and fuel, you try to save on how much you then have to push, but with Lewis behind me I had to push from the start immediately after the stop, already from turn two. When I was able to save the covers a little, Lewis came back into my exhaust and I had to go back to pushing,” Perez then explained. A rubber band game that lasted about ten laps, until, a few laps from the end, Verstappen, despite himself, changed the face of the race once again. In fact, a loss of pressure in the left front tire had caused him to end up against the barriers on the main straight, causing the safety car to come out. This was a delicate situation, as the dynamic appeared to be very similar to that which had involved Stroll previously. Same tire losing pressure and, again, no warning signs before failure. What further complicated the situation was the fact that the team had asked Perez to reduce his movements on the straights as much as possible, which made it more complicated to warm up the tires in the event of a restart, especially considering at that moment he was on hard tires with several passes under my belt.

The display of the red flag had changed the cards on the table for the umpteenth time, thus giving all the pilots the opportunity to return and replace the covers with fresher units. From the Mexican's point of view, there was clearly more to lose than to gain, because finishing the race behind the safety car would have eliminated any chance of his opponents attempting an overtaking, while a possible restart from a standstill would have brought with it challenges not to underestimate. Unknowns, such as those regarding reliability, not only due to the previously punctured tire on Verstappen's car, but also due to those hydraulic pressure problems that characterized his second stint, as Christian Horner then explained after the checkered flag: " Perez lost hydraulic pressure gradually during the second half of the race. It was something we were worried about ahead of the restart. This is why we delayed the ignition of his engine as much as possible, in order to reduce the stress on the system as much as possible.” Statements also shared by the driver himself, who later said in interviews: “We were close to withdrawing the car, but fortunately we managed to finish the race, even if it was very difficult. It was a pretty big deal. The team had asked me not to zigzag. I couldn't warm up the tires before the restart. It was only two laps and we were the ones who had something to lose because we were in the lead,” Perez later explained. Words that help to understand why, both before the display of the red flag and in the formation lap before the restart, the team had asked the Mexican to reduce his movements on the steering wheel as much as possible, negatively influencing the possibility of completing the phase adequately. tire warm-up. Two single laps, but two single passes that could have completely changed the fate of the race.

When the traffic lights went out, Perez's clutch release had not been the best, unlike that of Hamilton, who had been able to come alongside his Red Bull rival from the very first metres, before the involuntary pressure of a button on the steering wheel had changed the braking distribution, thus inducing him to make the error. This had returned the lead of the race to the Mexican, giving him an opportunity that he could no longer miss, beyond the concerns regarding reliability. Two laps, in which the driver from Guadalajara had given his all, bringing the RB16B number 11 first to the finish line and thus achieving his second career victory, the first of his new adventure with the Milton Keynes team. A great satisfaction which, however, must not distract from that path of growth and adaptation that Perez still has to complete, an element of which he himself is aware: "I feel extremely proud of what we have done, it demonstrates the amount of work we have done since I arrived and it shows that hard work pays off. It's also a boost for the team. But I have to continue to improve, I'm not 100% with the car yet, we still have to continue working. We know that we have cars to fight with and be able to try to win this championship,” Checo then explained, confident that he has a competitive single-seater with which to fight for further successes.