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Max Verstappen's father, Jos Verstappen, made a cheeky dig after Red Bull driver Sergio Perez notched up his first race win of the 2023 F1 season in Jeddah on Sunday (March 19).
Jos was caught in an awkward moment when the Mexican driver was celebrating his win with his pit crew and team members when Max Verstappen settled for P2 after a charging drive from P15.
Speaking to Formule1.nl, the senior Verstappen said:
“Of course, we all want to win. But that was not possible today. The margin was too small for that. I don't think he (Pérez) gets the chance that often. He sees that too and then goes for it. It was now against us in qualifying (Verstappen retired in Q2 with a problem on the drive shaft, ed.). Bad luck, I won't go into that. We know what it is."
"But otherwise, Max just easily drives to that pole position. And then the race is a bit easier. Because we actually already predicted: it is quite difficult to come forward here. This is a track with long turns, it's hard to make a difference there. We need more difficult circuits and more corners.”
"Personally I'm not happy, because I'm not here to be second" - Max Verstappen
Two-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen said that he was not entirely happy finishing behind his teammate and called out the team after reliability issues forced him to start in P15.
Speaking to F1.com, he said:
“Of course, I recovered to second, which is good, and in general the whole feeling in the team, everyone is happy, but personally I'm not happy, because I'm not here to be second."
"Especially when you are also working very hard also back at the factory to make sure you arrive here in a good state, making sure everything is spot on, and then you have to do a recovery race – which I like, I mean I don't mind doing it – but when you are fighting for a championship and it looks like it's between two cars, we have to make sure the two cars are reliable.”
“The beginning, the first few laps were really hard to follow cars because of the street circuit, the fast corners, the walls are all very close, you get kind of a tailwind effect, and the car is a bit all over the place."
Max Verstappen still holds the championship lead over his teammate Sergio Perez by one point after he took the fastest lap off the Mexican on the last lap in Jeddah.
