How Red Bull used Perez to boost Verstappen's performance in Qatar

Max Verstappen created a bit of a sensation on Saturday night during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix. Having been behind since the start of the weekend, with a Sprint race finished in only 8th place, the Dutchman set the fastest time in Q3 ahead of George Russell and the McLaren. If he finally has lost his pole position a few hours later due to a one-place penalty for obstructing the driver Mercedes, the now four-time world champion experienced a surprising surge in performance between the Sprint and qualifying.

A start that Red Bull knows how to explain. Christian Horner detailed the reasons for this return to form on the part of the Dutchman thanks to… Sergio Pérez. Indeed, the Austrian team sacrificed the Mexican's Sprint – by making set-up changes under Parc Fermé regime before the race, which forced him to start from the pits – to find solutions and apply them, successfully, to Max Verstappen's car.

"It's a great turnaround from the team, Red Bull Team Principal told the official Red Bull channel F1. There was a lot of work between sessions with looking at the data, a lot of changes. So it was a great team effort. Max was able to get all the performance out of it. We made some changes to Checo [Pérez]'s car, taking him out of Parc Ferme [before the Sprint]. That certainly played a part in what we did here in qualifying. Looking at the data, there were three corners where we were really bad yesterday: the first, the second and the last. We managed to fix those issues today."

Verstappen as good in racing?

However, despite the many modifications made to Max Verstappen's RB20, Christian Horner admitted that he did not expect such a surge in qualifying. The British manager hopes that the performance displayed on Saturday night in the flying lap exercise will be the same in the race on Sunday, with the Constructors' Championship in mind. Red Bull has only won one grand prix in the last twelve rounds.

"I don't think any of us expected such a turnaround. I have to congratulate the engineering team and all the support in the UK, because significant changes were made between sessions, Christian Horner emphasizes. Max felt it immediately, he said the car felt more connected, with more grip. So it's a phenomenal job. We hope the changes we made today will apply [for the Grand Prix] as well. It's very cold here. It's crucial to get these tyres working. They worked well in the previous race [in Las Vegas], the degradation was very low and I expect it to be the same tomorrow.

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