Sergio Perez, Red Bull, Hungaroring, 2022

Perez rues VSC after falling short of podium places in Hungary

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In the round-up: Sergio Perez believed going from eleventh to third in Hungary was possible were it not for a late-race neutralisation.

In brief

Could Perez have matched Verstappen’s charge?

Red Bull had a lot of work to do with their two cars starting 10th and 11th for the Hungarian Grand Prix, but Max Verstappen was able to climb nine places to win. His team mate Sergio Perez rose into fifth place a few laps after Verstappen took the lead, but then he made no further progress.

Once those who would finish ahead ahead had pitted, Perez had a 15.4-second gap to a podium result to make up during his final stint, and he had closed that down to 5.3s prior to a two-lap Virtual Safety Car period. Green flag action resumed on the race’s last lap, leaving him with little time to reduce the gap further and he ended up finishing fifth.

“On the second stint, we were looking to do the one-stop,” he explained. “So we didn’t push as hard, and just towards the end I think we had pretty good pace, especially under this cold, cold weather. But unfortunately I just missed out on the podium. George and Carlos was within a couple of seconds. I think without the VSC it would have been a lot closer.”

Haas “couldn’t switch on” hard tyre

Haas’s drivers were not impressed with Pirelli’s hard compound tyre available at the Hungarian GP, with both using it during the race and only returning negative feedback.

“I think at some point it felt like it [was possible to score], but then we put on the C2 [hard tyre] and things changed pretty quickly,” said Mick Schumacher. “That C2 just didn’t work for us, especially the rear tyres. It never really seemed to switch on, and therefore we kind of tried to go off it and then go on to the C3. The last three laps were tough.

“I was hoping that the tyre would improve at some point, but it just never did. So it felt like ice in the rear for most part of the stint, really. And then I put the medium on and everything felt a lot better.”

His team mate Kevin Magnussen expected Haas to be stronger in the race than qualifying but was proven wrong. “The hards didn’t work, couldn’t switch them on,” he said. “So I was driving around on cold tyres and then we swapped to medium. It was a bit better, but mostly the pace wasn’t there in the race so we’ve got to try to understand why.”

Paretta Autosport back on IndyCar grid with new sponsor

The female-led and Ed Carpenter Racing-supported Paretta Autosport outfit, makes its third and last planned appearance in IndyCar this year on the streets of Nashville this weekend, has announced Acumatica as its new title sponsor.

The cloud software company brings funding to the car driven by Simona de Silverstro, who contested the team’s first two races this year and finished them in 21st and 18th.

Busy 2023 F1 schedule puts Gasly off buying a dog

AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly says Formula 1’s ever-growing schedule has put him off getting a dog.

Following rumours F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali intends to put a record-breaking 24 races on the 2023 F1 calendar, Gasly admitted he is reconsidering his plans.

“Based on what Stefano is planning for us next year with 25 races, I’m not sure,” he said in Hungary. “The dog is getting lower down the list in the priority list. I’m still negotiating with my family to get one for themselves, But then I think for me, my personal life will not. Otherwise I’ll need to get a pass like Roscoe [Lewis Hamilton’s pet dog] got. For now I’m saying it’s not my priority.”

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Comment of the day

James Coulee thinks there’s a Porsche-focused logic in Red Bull’s announcement that they will continue to have Honda support for their self-branded powertrains until the end of 2025, when Porsche is anticipated to become Red Bull’s engine supplier.

Though I understand Porsche is more than capable of developing an F1 engine on their own, they may prefer to have Red Bull Powertrains as a starting point:

– it’s more economically interesting as neither new facilities need to be developed nor a new team assembled (as their current teams and facilities will continue with their current programs, as far as I know);
– Red Bull Powertrains has specific F1 engine expertise (particularly regarding its personnel but also its tools) that Porsche doesn’t currently have;
– Porsche’s engine development doesn’t have to start from scratch, with better economical and sporting results for sure (we just need to remember Honda’s difficulties when trying to go down that path).
James Coulee

Happy birthday!

Happy birthday to Soren Kaae!

On this day in motorsport

  • 70 years ago today Alberto Ascari won the world championship and led a Ferrari sweep of the top four finishing positions at the Nurburgring

Author information

Ida Wood
Often found in junior single-seater paddocks around Europe doing journalism and television commentary, or dabbling in teaching photography back in the UK. Currently based...

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15 comments on “Perez rues VSC after falling short of podium places in Hungary”

  1. Irrespective on how the Alpine mess plays out, I’m enjoying the fact that Piastri has suddenly gone from completely left-out in ‘22 to in-demand in ‘23. His junior record deserves it.

    Personally I can’t see him ditching Alpine (a manufacturer team) for a sideways move into McLaren (customer team).

    I think the move is to Red Bull, with two years in AT before a potential move to the big table in ‘25. This is something worth ditching Alpine for.

    Now who had close ties to both Red Bull and Porsche to facilitate this sort of play? Mark Webber comes to mind…

    1. And gasly to Alpine for a full French outfit! I think this jigsaw is the one I like most!

      1. Gasly is already signed for 2023. I have a feeling that Red Bull will be asking a lot from Alpine if they would need to acquire him and it could force Alpine into taking a lesser talent than Piastri like Martins or Doohan before they are ready or force their hand on Zhou, Schumacher or use a stop gap like Giovinazzi or Hulkenberg.

        1. problem is that zhou is another stroll or latifi: slow and a waste of a seat he virtually guaranteed a position due to ccp pay driver money funding the team, I doubt he is on a one year contract as the ccp want to see him race at home next year (or 2024) for nationalist propaganda reasons so his alfa seat looks safe.

          @aussierod I always respected Oscar calling him the possible next Lewis Hamilton and thought it was disgusting that a driver who ran away with F2/F3 titles in his rookie seasons had to sit out 2022 when ‘other’ journeymen drivers who spent 6 years in F2/F3 winning zero got a F1 seat due to the bags of cash paydriver money they bring.. One way to stop this is to only give the F2 winner and runner up a super licence and stop drivers like zhou gaming the system gaining enough points by virtue of hanging around long enough in F2..

          Like Lewis Oscar dominated the lower formula he was in but Lewis was fortunate he had Ron Dennis as a team leader and mentor that who a risk and gave him the seat in 2007 after he won the 2006 GP2 title but Alpine/Renault screwed Oscar over and was ordered to sit home because 41 year old alonso was blocking his seat.
          I am not surprised why he is angry with Alpine and the disgraceful way he has been treated by them.

    2. @aussierod – I doubt about Red Bull-owned teams, especially AT, as that team is only for drivers with a certain status & he isn’t among those.
      @tommy-c – He’s already confirmed for next season, so he’d be an easier said than done option.

    3. How’s Piastri going to Aston Martin when Alonso has just confirmed he’s replacing Vettel, and when Stroll occupies the other seat?

  2. Is Perez joking or what? The VSC didn’t stay long to justify losing a couple seconds. He couldnt even catch them the whole race.

    1. Andy (@andyfromsandy)
      3rd August 2022, 9:14

      Coulda, shoulda, woulda, etc…

      Once again he is done by George but thinks he is in with a shout and also Lewis pulled away from him when the order was VER, HAM, PER during I think the middle stint.

    2. The reasoning presented above is that 1. he didn’t make inroads early because he was told to save the tyres to do a 1 stopper. Later they changed that and he was catching the guys ahead but the VCS stopped that. And on top he did not get it right at the restart, which cemented that loss.

      I do agree that there was no real indication he could have caught up even without the time lost with that VSC, but I wouldn’t hold the lower race pace against him when that was strategy induced Boudi @andyfromsandy

  3. Maybe.

    Interesting that a race calendar dictates Gasly’s dog plans to a large extent, although he mistakenly thought 25 when 24 is the upper limit.

    So Alex Jacques is the culprit for Piastri’s confusing present situation.

    Only Algarve in the end. I was hoping for slightly more extra tracks.

    & why should Sulayem see an issue with Colombia possibly hosting F1 someday?

    COTD is spot-on. Easier both logistically & economically than starting entirely from scratch.

  4. I started reading the Mansell quote with a downcast Brummie accent, then realised it should have been Australian…

    1. Me too!

  5. This Perez situation is becoming problematic. At least Bottas would always be right behind Lewis should things go wrong for their nr 1. They did have a far more superior car, but still Perez should do way better if you have the ambition to take the WCC. I feel RedBull should act soon. This is unacceptable, especially after his poor campaign last year. And do not give me the ‘car suits the other driver better’ story. A driver at this level at one of the top 3 front running teams should be able to handle this.

    1. Jeffrey Powell
      4th August 2022, 15:16

      I am afraid I have to agree, nice guys don’t necessarily make F1 superstars or even top notch shotguns. I don’t remember a single race where Checo raced equally with Max. notwithstanding were Max had some sort of problem. Bothas did outdrive Lewis on odd occasions and George seems to be getting close to his performance if not surpassing him. Max needs someone like Lando. who I am convinced could give him a run for his money, but I think there would be some very large dolls thrown out of prams if there was even a faint chance of that being vaguely considered.

  6. OMG…. and when you think at the hype all over the internet, here too, surrounding PER after Monaco that he’s a title challenger, that VER seems to be in trouble etc etc.

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