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Formula 1 2021 Season Stats Review

Hamiltons 5 Biggest Winning Margins

Weekend Stats Round-up: Oct 1st-3rd 2021

The narrowest winning margins in Motorsport: Part 1

Formula One Drivers Who Won On Their Team Debuts: Part 1

WRC Stat Attack

2021 Russian Grand Prix: Stats Breakdown

F1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix Preview

2021 Turkish Grand Prix Stats Breakdown: 

F1 Qatar Grand Prix Stats Review

Cassidy “really pleased” by pace on DTM return at Lausitzring

MotoGP postpones Finnish GP return until 2023

Frustrations continue over Gen3 Supercars

Trackhouse Racing has opened its doors to global racing stars

The data that hints of an Alfa Romeo F1 surprise in Monaco

Edwards: Waters bucking "embarrassing" SVG trend

Auer bemused by “massive pace” deficit in DTM Lausitzring race two

Rast explains “upside-down” set-up change behind DTM podium return

Fenestraz ignored Kondo pit call on way to best-ever finish

Perez calls for Red Bull F1 talks over Spanish GP team orders

Steiner explains Haas F1 Barcelona pace despite lack of upgrades

Nick Cassidy says he is &ldquo;really pleased&rdquo; by the potential he showed on his first DTM appearance of 2022 at the Lausitzring last weekend, despite only scoring two points.
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The Envision Formula E driver, who made his DTM debut with the AF Corse-run Red Bull Ferrari team at last year&rsquo;s Norisring round in place of Alex Albon, was brought into the lineup full-time this year but had to miss the Portimao opener due to a clash with the Monaco E-Prix.
In his place, rally legend Sebastien Loeb finished 16th and 18th in his first GT3 outing since 2013.
On his return to the team for the Lausitzring, 2017 SUPER GT champion Cassidy qualified 12th for the first race and finished ninth after prevailing in a battle with defending DTM champion Maxi Gotz&rsquo;s Winward Mercedes.
He then qualified seventh for race two and was at the tail-end of a four-car scrap for fourth when punctures put him out of the running.
But the Kiwi professed himself happy with the weekend considering his limited GT3 experience, having shared the car with Loeb for his three days of pre-season testing.
&ldquo;I just had two punctures on the same lap with about four laps to go, so that sucked,&rdquo; he told Motorsport.com on Sunday.
&ldquo;Actually I just had two bolts in my tyres, debris, so not Michelin&rsquo;s fault, not the team&rsquo;s fault, just unlucky.
&ldquo;But to be honest, I&rsquo;m quite pleased in a way because I felt on Saturday we executed a good race.
&ldquo;I wasn&rsquo;t happy with the balance on Saturday and finished ninth. On Sunday I felt like I was in the fight for pole but after the red flag I had already taken the peak out of the tyre and everybody else had that lap still in them.
&ldquo;Honestly, today felt like we were one of the quickest, we just didn&rsquo;t get the points.
&ldquo;But from a personal feeling I&rsquo;m glad to feel that and even feel like we had more potential than what we showed, so really pleased.
&ldquo;Here are the best GT3 guys in the world &ndash; the field is unbelievable for the drivers in these cars &ndash; and they&rsquo;re in these cars every weekend.
&ldquo;So as a first weekend, really solid I think from a pace and performance point of view and I hope we can do some good things this year.&rdquo;
<img src="https://production-cms-mss.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/2_b1c7321f25.webp" alt="" />
Teammate Felipe Fraga was ruled out of Saturday&rsquo;s race by a puncture, before a dramatic fire in qualifying prevented his participation on Sunday.
The Brazilian reacted quickly by pulling his car off the road and helping fire marshals to douse the flames.
Explaining the incident to television crews prior to the Sunday race, he said: &ldquo;It was not a big problem, I just run to try to make the fire down.
&ldquo;And it&rsquo;s not a hero [act], [trying to save the car] is the job of every driver in my opinion. If their car is on fire, you need to try to help because it&rsquo;s your equipment.
&ldquo;Now the car is bad and I&rsquo;m sorry for the team.
&ldquo;But it&rsquo;s still a lot of races until the end and we already showed we have performance and I&rsquo;m sure in Imola we will be there.&rdquo;
Speaking to Motorsport.com's sister site Motorsport-Total on Tuesday, Fraga added: &ldquo;I was not afraid.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s not like a movie, the car will not explode, we know it, but it was bad to see the car in that way, it hurts a lot.
&ldquo;To be honest it was one of the days I was most sad in my career.
&ldquo;With the fire it was hard because you see your car, like your baby, getting on fire, it&rsquo;s many feelings going through your head.
&ldquo;It&rsquo;s all the hard work from the team and everything, we know it&rsquo;s bad, it&rsquo;s hard.&rdquo;
Fraga was unclear if he would get a new chassis for Imola.
&ldquo;They said to me, &lsquo;Man, don&rsquo;t worry, it&rsquo;s just a car. We will get a new one if needed&rsquo;. I would like just to change the engine to be honest. I really love that car.&rdquo;

Nick Cassidy

EuroSpeedway Lausitz

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By James Newbold

MotoGP's Finnish Grand Prix will be cancelled for the 2022 season, with the current geopolitical situation between Russia and Ukraine forcing its postponement to 2023.
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As Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine, this has created multiple breaks in global supply chains as sanctions upon Russia continue to escalate.
The neighbouring nation of Finland has thus declared its intention to join NATO, which has not been received well within Russia.
Motorcycle racing's governing body, the FIM, has hence stated that homologation works at the KymiRing circuit cannot be completed in time for the scheduled MotoGP race on 10 July, and thus has elected to push the race back to 2023.
"Homologation works at the KymiRing, together with the risks caused by the ongoing geopolitical situation in the region, have sadly obliged the cancellation of the Finnish Grand Prix in 2022," read an FIM statement.
"The current circumstances have created delays and put the ongoing work at the new circuit at risk. All parties have therefore agreed that the track&rsquo;s debut must be postponed to 2023, when MotoGP looks forward to returning to Finland for the first time in four decades.
"The final 2022 FIM MotoGP World Championship calendar is therefore expected to comprise 20 rounds."
The race at the KymiRing circuit was due to join the MotoGP calendar for 2020, before the race was postponed to 2021 following the COVID-19 pandemic.
But this was once again cancelled following travel restrictions within Finland, initially pushing the race back further another year before its further postponement.
It has been 40 years since a Finnish motorcycle grand prix took place, where the 125cc, 250cc and 350cc categories raced at the Imatra street circuit.
The top tier category, then the 500cc class, held its last race in Finland a season prior in Imatra, which was won by Suzuki's Marco Lucchinelli.
Although the KymiRing has a five-year contract to host a MotoGP race, initially beginning for the 2018 season, it has yet to deliver any of its races owing to global situations outside of its control.
The cancellation of the 2022 race leaves a gap of six weeks between the Dutch TT at Assen on 26 June and the British Grand Prix on 7 August at Silverstone.

KymiRing

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By Jake Boxall-Legge

There is an ongoing rumble of frustration in the Supercars paddock over the timeline for the Gen3 cars that are set to debut in 2023.
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A full grid of the next-generation cars needs to be built ahead of the 2023 season opener early next year, with Supercars having already delayed the introduction three times.
Initially the cars were meant to debut in 2021, before that was pushed back to 2022, then mid-2022, and then 2023 as the design and development process was delayed.
That process is still ongoing with the prototype Chevrolet Camaro and Ford Mustang nowhere near their final specification.
Changes to the chassis and suspension, particularly at the front, continue while proper aero testing won't take place until at least September.
With the year nearly half gone, teams are starting to get nervous about what their off-season will look like.
As it stands there is nothing they can do about their own Gen3 builds, which suggests it will be a busy Christmas period for crews as they strap together the new cars.
Tim Blanchard, owner of the single-car Blanchard Racing Team, has even put a contingency plan in place that involves technically-savvy people from his CoolDrive automotive business.
"Like all these projects of this size everyone wants more communication, more clarity, visibility," he told Motorsport.com.
"We would obviously like to know more about what's going on, but there are a lot of moving parts. The project is moving along.
"We're probably in as fortunate position because we've only got to build one car, but there's a lot of work that needs to be done between now and the beginning of next season. If we can't make it, there will be people in a lot worse position than us.
"It's definitely going to be a challenge. But we've got quite a few people with a mechanical or engineering background in the wider CoolDrive business. I'm confident that the BRT crew will be able to manage it but we have those resources in the CoolDrive business that we can lean on, if we need to, to get the job done."
Team 18 team manager Bruin Beasley said that's it not just about a busy build season over Christmas, but giving teams time to look over and understand the new cars before they start racing them.
That, according to Beasley, is further complicated by the fact the homologation teams Triple Eight and Dick Johnson Racing already have significant experience with the cars.
[The timing] for me at the moment is a bit of a concern. Ideally we'd be building cars right now," he said.
"If we're going to go racing next year, I want the car now so I can do stuff and understand it, and at the moment we've got very little.
"I'm sure there are some people who do know some stuff, who I feel have a head start. And that's frustrating.
"If it was a Dallara or a Tatuus or a Mygale, and I could buy something in and we could start on it now, it would be easy.
"But we're relying on people, who are part of the process, that we've got to race against. That's unusual."
Tickford Racing CEO Tim Edwards, whose squad will need to have four Gen3 Mustangs ready for the start of the 2023 season, said the workload was like staring at Mount Everest.
However he also countered that the delays, while painful in the short term, will save more pain in the future, and called for patience from the other teams.
"It looks like Everest. And it looks like we're all going to be very good rock climbers in the second half of this year," he said.
"The simple answer is yes, of course we'd love to be building them now. But you've got to go through the process. You've got to do the hard yards, you've got to do the testing.
"They are re-designing bits of it at the moment based on what they've learnt. I'd rather them do that now than half way through 2023 they say, 'right, we have to have a big re-design for 2024' and we have to do it again.
"Unfortunately you've got to go through a little bit of pain to get the best outcome, because we have to live with this car for a long time. Yep, frustrating, but it's taking the time it's taking to get the best outcome."

By Andrew van Leeuwen

Trackhouse Entertainment Group has announced the start of a program designed to expand its international reach by fielding a NASCAR Cup Series entry for international racing drivers.
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Under the program, dubbed &lsquo;Project 91,&rsquo; Trackhouse Racing will enter the No. 91 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 at least once during the remainder of this Cup season with plans to expand the program in the future.
The first international driver to participate in the program will be announced with the next few days.
Sources told Motorsport.com that among the series Trackhouse is looking to target for drivers are Formula 1, IndyCar and sports car racing.
Trackhouse Racing, a division of Trackhouse Entertainment Group, currently fields two full-time Cup Series teams with drivers Ross Chastain and Daniel Suarez.
&ldquo;Project 91&rsquo;s mission is to activate the intersection point of NASCAR racing and global motorsport culture,&rdquo; said Justin Marks, co-owner of Trackhouse Racing along with Grammy award-winning rapper PitBull.
&ldquo;I truly believe the NexGen car represents an opportunity for NASCAR to enter the global professional motorsport conversation.
&ldquo;We now have a race vehicle with international technological relevance where world-class drivers from other disciplines can compete at NASCAR&rsquo;s highest level without the steep learning curve that the previous generation cars required.&rdquo;
Marks said the addition of several new components to the Next Gen car design, including diffusers, independent rear suspension and a sequential gearbox have helped make the car an easier transition for drivers in other international motorsport series.
&ldquo;With the formation of Project 91, Trackhouse has opened the door for global champions while beginning the process of scaling into an internationally recognized racing brand.&rdquo;

TrackHouse Racing

By Jim Utter

Alfa Romeo&rsquo;s progress in Formula 1 this year has made it a Q3 regular &ndash; and occasional thorn in the side of Mercedes.
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But as the team heads to this weekend's Monaco Grand Prix, it has every right to feel that it could have its best chance of the season so far to cause a proper upset.
For as it has come to better understand the performance of its C42, it knows that one of its core strengths is in slow speed corners, of which there are plenty in Monte Carlo.
As Valtteri Bottas remarked after some of the high-speed sections of Barcelona exposed the Alfa Romeo against its rivals: "I think, next week is quite suitable for our car.
"It's mainly slow speed corners, and our car is really good in slow speed corners."
The data from Barcelona certainly seems to back up Bottas's claims of its strengths being in the lower speed sections.
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In very general terms, it is often said that the performance of a car through Barcelona's final sector is quite a good indicator of how it will perform in Monaco, because it is a sequence of medium/low speed turns.
Looking at the sector times from qualifying, Bottas's Alfa Romeo was definitely there at the sharp end.
Taking into account the quickest of each car through S3, here is how they line up:
<ol>
<li>Ferrari 27.336s</li>
<li>Red Bull 27.411s</li>
<li>Alfa Romeo 27.443s</li>
<li>Haas 27.561s</li>
<li>Mercedes 27.698s</li>
<li>McLaren 27.768s</li>
<li>Alpine 27.896s</li>
<li>AlphaTauri 27.984s</li>
<li>Aston Martin 28.197s</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Williams 28.586s</li>
</ol>
That already looks more encouraging for Alfa Romeo, but if you dig even deeper into the individual GPS sector times of the whole lap and you can see that the Alfa Romeo was actually quickest overall in some segments.
Comparing the qualifying laps of Charles Leclerc, Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas, the GPS traces shows the Alfa Romeo was fastest overall on the entry to the Turn 12 right hander, as well as the exit of the chicane and into the final corner.
With that pointing to some good traction at low speed, things could be set up for Bottas to have an eye on getting his Alfa Romeo in the mix of the top two or three teams this weekend.
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But despite the optimistic signs produced from the data, Alfa Romeo itself is not getting too carried away by things &ndash; as it has no doubts that the top squads will be just as strong as they have been all year so there is little chance of a shock win.
Alfa Romeo's head of trackside engineering Xevi Pujolar is certainly not thinking that anything will come easy in Monaco.
"In terms of performance, I don't expect anything magic for sure," he said. "We are strong in the lower speed, but the top teams are also strong in the low speed. It is not like we are much better than them, we are closer to them.
"Probably we will have a better gap to the midfield, a bit more margin. But I think for the Ferrari, Red Bull and Mercedes, looking at the performance they are having in Sector 3, they are still good."
But even delivering a result behind the runaway Ferrari and Red Bull teams would be a good way to cap the Monaco weekend.
"We were fighting for P4 [in Spain] and then we end up P6, so I mean why not go for that P4 or better?" added Pujolar. "For sure we try.
"If anyone does a mistake, we will try to take the opportunity. But priority number one for us is making sure that we have both cars that are quick, because if we have Zhou [Guanyu] there as well then, we are a strong contender."
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2022 Monaco Grand Prix

Alfa Romeo

by Jonathan Noble, Co-author Oleg Karpov

TM race winner Lucas Auer was puzzled by his Winward Mercedes team&rsquo;s loss of pace in Sunday&rsquo;s second race at the Lausitzring after qualifying on pole for the Saturday opener.
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The Austrian driver finished third on Saturday after being jumped at the rolling start by eventual winner Sheldon van der Linde and dropping behind Luca Stolz in the pits with a slightly slower turnaround.
But Auer was only able to qualify ninth for race two, where he finished eighth with 5kg success weight after taking advantage of Marco Wittmann and Laurens Vanthoor both running wide while battling for position at Turn 2.
As a result, Auer slipped from the top of the standings to third as van der Linde&rsquo;s second win in as many races vaulted him to the points lead.
All Mercedes runners were given a five-kilo weight increase in the latest Balance of Performance updates prior to qualifying on Sunday, but Auer was two tenths slower than leading Mercedes runner Maro Engel (GruppeM) who lined up third and finished second.
Asked by Motorsport.com if he understood why Sunday had been less competitive, Auer said: &ldquo;I&rsquo;m not sure, but we missed massive pace to be honest.
&ldquo;Qualifying already, it was not good, and in the race it was even worse. It was more looking in the mirror than anything else.
&ldquo;The balance was not too much difference to yesterday, pace was really poor. I cannot tell you now the right answer.&rdquo;
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Auer, who won the opening round of the championship in Portimao, told Motorsport.com that he expects up-and-down performances to be the nature of the series this year.
Less than half a second covered the top 16 cars on the grid for race two in Germany, and Auer thinks it will be important to understand where Winward lost out ahead of next month&rsquo;s Imola round.
&ldquo;Because you have so many things that are influencing [performance], I think it&rsquo;s difficult to stay on top,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;If you have the same conditions all the time then I think like Sheldon for example, he proved you can do it the whole weekend.
&ldquo;But for us this weekend was quite impressive to be so strong on Saturday and so weak on Sunday.
&ldquo;I think if we get it right, we are fast. But we need to work on us a bit, because we have some up and downs and I think we have to find now [why].
&ldquo;We have to settle now and just do it every time, all the time in whatever conditions.&rdquo;
Fellow Winward driver Maximilian Gotz endured a torrid weekend, the defending champion scoring only a single point for tenth in race one.
Rookie David Schumacher retired from the opener with brake problems and was promoted to 14th in race two by a five-second penalty for Gotz, following a clash with Rolf Iniechen.
Persistent understeer left Gotz to report that his car was &ldquo;completely out of balance&rdquo;.
Winward boss Christian Hohenadel said: &ldquo;On good days you win, on less good days you learn. We have a lot to work on.&rdquo;

Lucas Auer

Three-time DTM champion Rene Rast said a set-up rethink gave him a &ldquo;different car&rdquo; for the second Lausitzring race and helped him to score the first podium of his comeback.
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After a year away racing in Formula E, the Abt Audi driver had a tough return series return in Portimao as he scored no points, and admitted that he found his R8 LMS Evo II &ldquo;quite difficult to drive&rdquo; on his way to eighth at the Lausitzring in Saturday&rsquo;s race one.
But after his mechanics worked late into the evening on an &ldquo;upside-down&rdquo; change to the set-up, Rast qualified a strong second on Sunday and felt &ldquo;much more comfortable in the car&rdquo; on his way to third in the race, just 1.817s behind winner Sheldon van der Linde.
&ldquo;I&rsquo;m obviously happy with the podium and the points, but I&rsquo;m the most happy about what we achieved from yesterday to today,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;The car yesterday was quite difficult to drive, and I spun maybe almost five or six times.
&ldquo;Today was much more easy, I had a much better car, the boys worked overnight and switched the set-up from left to right, from upside-down and made huge steps.&rdquo;
Asked to explain the changes, Rast said it was a &ldquo;completely different philosophy&rdquo; that will give him &ldquo;a foundation for upcoming weekends&rdquo;.
&ldquo;I feel much more comfortable in the car, still need to fine-tune here and there but we saw that the direction is the right one, and that&rsquo;s very positive for the next weekends,&rdquo; he said.
He later added: &ldquo;After Portimao, I wasn&rsquo;t really confident. Now I am much more confident, obviously also more motivated to collect more points and hopefully more podiums&rdquo;.
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Abt team boss Thomas Biermaier conceded that the team is &ldquo;not quite where we want to be yet&rdquo; but was delighted with Rast&rsquo;s result.
&ldquo;We still have some work to do to really understand the Evo II,&rdquo; he said.
&ldquo;But I am incredibly happy for Rene. He earned his first podium with hard work, his whole crew did a good job.&rdquo;
Rast&rsquo;s teammate Ricardo Feller rebounded from a puncture that caused his retirement in race one to claim seventh in race two, but 2021 DTM title challenger Kelvin van der Linde failed to score in either race after what he called an &ldquo;extremely difficult weekend&rdquo;.
The South African qualified mid-grid on both occasions, retired from race one after an opening lap trip through the gravel caused a vibration, and in race two made an extra pitstop to switch back to his starting tyres - thus saving a set for the next round at Imola &ndash; when it became clear that points were not on the cards.
"We will build up Kelvin again after this weekend," added Biermaier. "We will do everything we can to get him back to his old strength at Imola."

René Rast

Sacha Fenestraz has revealed he ignored his Kondo Racing team&rsquo;s pit instructions en route to his best-ever Super Formula finish at Autopolis.
<img src="https://production-cms-mss.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/1_0c2248b675.webp" alt="" />
Fenestraz finished second at the Kyushu track, taking advantage of an overcut strategy that left him behind only race winner Ryo Hirakawa at the chequered flag.
However, it could have been a different story had the Franco-Argentine driver heeded his Kondo crew&rsquo;s request for him to pit at the start of the window on lap 10 of 42.
Fenestraz instead decided to stay out until lap 28, enjoying a spell in the lead of the race, and when he returned to the track he emerged ahead of several cars he had been running behind in the early stages, including poleman Tomoki Nojiri.
By contrast, Kondo teammate Kenta Yamashita finished 11th and out of the points after stopping on lap 11, despite qualifying one place behind Fenestraz in seventh.
&ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t follow what the team said, so they were not too happy, but it paid off in the end,&rdquo; Fenestraz told Motorsport.com. &nbsp;&ldquo;So I&rsquo;m happy about that decision.&nbsp;
&ldquo;I saw the two cars in front [Tadasuke Makino and Ukyo Sasahara] pit in, and then I was like, screw it, I&rsquo;m not pitting! I had a clean track, and I felt before the stops I was faster than them. Behind the safety car, I was telling the team, &lsquo;guys, I think we can go a bit longer&rsquo;.
&ldquo;When the guys ahead came in I was able to take advantage [of the clean air] and increase the pace. It was my decision at the last minute not to come in, and it was the right call.&rdquo;
<img src="https://production-cms-mss.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/2_3ef13fa1be.webp" alt="" />
With Hirakawa stopping on lap 20, overcutting title rival Nojiri in the process, Fenestraz had the advantage of fresher tyres for the latter part of the race and initially closed the gap to his Toyota stablemate.
However, after several laps the Kondo driver had to turn his attention towards defending second from rookie sensation Atsushi Miyake, who stopped even later on lap 32 on his way to third.
&ldquo;I knew that the first three, four laps on these tyres are good, and you need to try to make the difference on those first &nbsp;laps, but there were still a lot of laps left so I didn&rsquo;t want to kill the tyres,&rdquo; explained Fenestraz.&nbsp;
&ldquo;Miyake was coming like crazy in the last five laps&hellip; I asked on the radio, &lsquo;who is this guy, is he a lap down or what?&rsquo;
&ldquo;Unfortunately we lost about two or three seconds in the pitstop, so with a normal pitstop maybe we could have battled with Ryo. But of course I am happy with second.&nbsp;
&ldquo;The team was struggling like crazy last year, so after what happened last year, [team owner Masahiko] Kondo-san said, &lsquo;this is like a win for me&rsquo;, so the boss is happy!&rdquo;
Contrasting fortunes for Goh rookies Miyake meanwhile was delighted to score his first podium in Super Formula in just his fourth start in the category, having been a surprise pick for the second Team Goh seat alongside Red Bull junior Ren Sato.
The Super Formula Lights graduate, who now sits seventh in the standings, credited his team, including Goh advisor Takuya Izawa, for helping him manage his tyres for a monster 32-lap stint.
<img src="https://production-cms-mss.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/3_8c0629ce38.webp" alt="" />
&ldquo;Originally we planned to change tyres early, but we were able to look after the tyres better than the cars around me, and the long-run pace was good, so we switched to a strategy of extending the first stint,&rdquo; said Miyake, who was the last driver to pit.
&ldquo;Towards the end [of the stint] it was tough with the tyres, but with the advice I had from the engineers and Izawa-san, I kept calm and managed things well.&rdquo;
Sato finished a lowly 18th after a late gearbox problem, although he was running outside the points following his pitstop on lap 31 - the legacy of a poor start and off-track excursion on Lap 1.
Watch all Super Formula races live on <a href="https://motorsport.tv/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Motorsport.tv</a> (available worldwide except Japan). <a href="https://motorsport.tv/program/super-formula-live-racing/31" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Click here for more information.</a>

Sacha Fenestraz

Kondo Racing

By: Jamie Klein

Sergio Perez wants to talk to Red Bull chiefs about their team orders calls in the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix, after being told to not fight teammate Max Verstappen.
<img src="https://production-cms-mss.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/1_2eb8ce14d0.webp" alt="" />
The Mexican was leading towards the end of the Spanish GP when he was told over the radio not to hold up his pursuing teammate &ndash; who had been switched on to an alternative tyre strategy.
But, having earlier not been given clear air to pass Verstappen and attack George Russell when he had a tyre advantage, he made clear that he felt the subsequent call was &lsquo;unfair&rsquo;.
While a later switch to softs meant he finished more than 13 seconds behind Verstappen anyway, Perez told his bosses on the team radio after the 1-2 finish that, while happy for the team, he wanted some clarification about events.
"I'm happy for the team, but we need to speak later,&rdquo; he said.
Perez was pushed on the matter in the post-race television interviews, but was diplomatic about the way that a possible win had got away from him.
&ldquo;I think it was close,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;But at the end it is a great team result. I'm happy for that.&rdquo;
Asked about the frustrations he had expressed on the team radio, Perez said: &ldquo;We were on different tyre strategies at the time.
"I let Max by in the beginning, then I thought at the time I could go by and not lose crucial seconds to make my strategy work. But anyway, it's a good team result.&rdquo;
Horner thinks, however, that when Perez is able to better understand how the race was shaping up at that stage with the different tyres, that he will accept Red Bull did the right thing.
Horner told Sky: &ldquo;Our responsibility is to bring the two cars home with as many points as we can, and of course what Checo couldn&rsquo;t see at the time, which he could see perfectly well now, is that he had such a long stint to do on the medium tyre.
&ldquo;Max had such a tyre advantage from a team perspective there is just no point in taking that risk with an intermittent DRS, with temperatures raging up and down. So it was absolutely the right thing to do.&rdquo;
Horner said that the team&rsquo;s call was not based on thinking about the championship, but more on what was realistic considering the tyre life on both cars.
&ldquo;I think we will discuss it and he [Perez] will see the race plot, and he will see that he had close to 30 laps to do on the tyres, which in the end we needed to pit to make sure we covered Russell.
&ldquo;In the heat of the moment you can understand it. If he wasn&rsquo;t pushing those types of things he isn&rsquo;t doing his job.&rdquo;

2022 Spanish Grand Prix

Sergio Pérez

Red Bull Racing

By: Jonathan Noble

Haas Formula 1 team principal Gunther Steiner has explained why his team was able to shine in Spanish Grand Prix qualifying despite not applying any upgrades like most of its midfield rivals.
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Kevin Magnussen qualified eighth in Barcelona less than a tenth behind Valtteri Bottas, whose Alfa Romeo team had brought a whole slew of upgrades to the Spanish round.
Teammate Mick Schumacher also made the Q3 shootout &ndash; for the first time in his career &ndash; qualifying 10th behind Magnussen and McLaren's Daniel Ricciardo.
Afterwards, Bottas expressed his confusion on how quick Haas was at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya as one of the few teams without updates.
"I think without the upgrades we would have not been seventh today," he said. "The only thing that is confusing is that Haas haven't had any updates, and they're still like... sometimes there, so I don't quite get it!"
When Motorsport.com requested Steiner to help the Finn out by revealing Haas' pace mystery, he explained that the decision not to bring upgrades to a well-known track like Barcelona actually helped the team further understand the baseline it has, which will then allow it to add the right upgrades to it in subsequent races.
He suggested that with upgrades his team might have even been slower than without.
"There's many people out there with upgrades and it's almost a critique that we didn't. Can you imagine if we had an upgrade? We would be on pole!" he joked.
"I always said we need to find the sweet spot of this car. You bring upgrades to Barcelona because you know the race track but I was thinking, okay, you know the race track so it's a good time to get the best out of this car.
"If you come to a race track like Miami, Jeddah, that you don't really know your way around, you don't have that much data, you just try to find something for that race track. While here you can look a bit deeper into the car, and that is what we did.
"If we had put on updates, we wouldn't have understood them and maybe we would have even been slower instead of faster. So we use this to get the best out of this car, so that next race hopefully we can keep that base and then we will bring updates."
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A key factor behind Haas' decision to focus on fine-tuning its existing configuration was the team's lack of consistency in the first five races, ranging from a stunning fifth place for Magnussen in Bahrain's opening round to being nowhere a few weeks later in Australia.
"For me, it was like we haven't understood this car, because if you look close our performance goes too up and down, and the car doesn't go quicker and slower from race track to track to race track. And that's why we just needed to understand the base well and it worked, I think.
"As you say, everybody has made updates and we moved closer to everybody in front, you know, and I think with Bottas if Kevin didn't have the issues with the DRS, he would have been very close, if not in front.
"We knew there was more to come from our car and hopefully we learned enough that the next races we can keep at that level. It will not be always the same, but at least we upped the game for ourselves without upgrades."
After qualifying both Magnussen and Schumacher were summoned by the stewards for driving unnecessarily slowly on the outlaps, exceeding the minimum drive time between the first and second safety car line.
The practice was so common that the FIA chalked up 55 violations by 18 drivers and explicitly reminded teams during the session that backing other drivers up coming out of the pitlane was prohibited.
The Haas drivers were deemed to be the worst offenders and received an official warning, no other drivers were summoned.
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Haas

By: Filip Cleeren Co-author: Oleg Karpov

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