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Sergio Perez is the 'ultimate team player' for Max Verstappen. This is the view of two-time F1 world champion Mika Hakkinen after the 2022 Spanish GP.
During the race, Perez and Max Verstappen were the two drivers that were left fighting for victory following Charles Leclerc's retirement. Red Bull, however, intervened as both drivers were put on different strategies and Perez allowed Verstappen to go through and win the race.
Speaking about the turn of events in his column with Unibet, Mika Hakkinen felt that Perez was the perfect teammate that the Dutchman could have at the moment as it would have been very tough for the former to give up on the win and yet he did it.
The Finn said:
“This was another really strong win for Max Verstappen. His engineers worked well to give him the right strategy to take the win, especially when the Drag Reduction System on his car was faulty and they realised that a 3-stop strategy was the right way to go.”
The former McLaren Mercedes driver went on to say:
“Checo could easily have won this race but Red Bull’s strategy handed the win to Max because they know every point counts in the World Championship. They also know that Max was delayed by the technical issue. It is teams that win World Championships and Checo is the ultimate team player for Max – even though it must have been extremely difficult for him to give up the win.”
Sergio Perez wanted to have a chat with his team after the race
At the end of the Spanish GP, Sergio Perez came on the team radio asking to have a chat with the team regarding his strategy. The move by Red Bull to swap the two drivers seemed logical for some fans as Max Verstappen is in a close title fight and has lost points due to DNFs earlier in the season. There is a section of fans, however, that felt bad for the Mexican, who could not even fight for the win against his teammate.
After the race, Verstappen took over the championship lead from Charles Leclerc and now leads him by 6 points, something that would not have been possible if he had finished second in the race. Although there will always be question marks over the use of team orders in the situation presented in Barcelona, the decision did make sense for the team.
