Perez Laments Late Safety Car Impact on Red Bull’s Shanghai Podium Hopes

In the Shanghai leg of the Formula 1 race, Ferrari’s Leclerc and McLaren’s Norris delayed their first pitstops and successfully transitioned to a one-stop strategy during a safety car intervention caused by Valtteri Bottas’s Sauber issues. Perez and Verstappen, his Red Bull teammate, had already made a pitstop during the green flag and were compelled to make a second stop to finish the race on hard tires. Despite Verstappen’s impressive pace, allowing him to maintain his lead, Perez found himself behind Norris and Leclerc after the second stop. Perez expressed that using his hard tires to overtake Leclerc depleted their lifespan, preventing him from catching and passing Norris, who comfortably secured a position between the two Red Bulls. Acknowledging the challenge, Perez stated, “At that point, the gap was already considerable, and given his impressive pace during the first stint in terms of tire degradation, I knew it would be a close call.” He further added, “We essentially had the same pace. Once you pass the car ahead and stop competing for an unspecified number of laps, which we ended up doing with Charles, it’s effectively game over. “You deplete your tires significantly. They never fully recover after expending so much energy on them. It’s a high-degradation environment, and I paid the price.” Perez emphasized that this was the only way to pass Leclerc, as they were on tires of the same age, and overtaking was challenging. Red Bull’s team principal, Horner, concurred with Perez’s assessment, stating that the safety car’s timing disrupted their aim for another one-two finish. After overtaking Leclerc, Perez’s pace trailed his world champion teammate by six to nine-tenths in clear air. “The safety car appeared at the most inconvenient time. We essentially had to switch to the same strategy as them for the race’s second half, costing Checo track position,” Horner explained. “He fell behind Lando and Charles, and I believe he pushed hard to overtake Charles. “He may have pushed the tires too hard at that point, which left him without enough to challenge Charles at the end. Without the safety car, I believe we would have achieved a one-two.”