Jos Verstappen: ‘Sergio Perez knows he doesn’t get chance to win that often’
Jos Verstappen arriving into the paddock. Saudi Arabia, March 2023.
Having watched his son miss out on the win, Jos Verstappen sent a subtle dig towards Saudi Arabia race winner Sergio Perez.
A telling image appeared on the TV broadcast when Perez celebrated with the Red Bull team and passed by a rather sullen looking Jos Verstappen.
But while that was later explained as an unfortunate camera cut, Verstappen Snr is often not one to hide his disappointment should it not be his son on the top step of the podium.
Speaking after the race, Verstappen defended his son from taking the fastest lap bonus point away from Perez and noted that the Mexican is not often in a position to win.
“I just knew he was going to do it,” Jos Verstappen said of Max Verstappen’s fastest lap, as reported by Formule1.nl. “Nice is not it? That way he will at least remain leader in the championship.
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“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 [Perez] gets the chance that often. He sees that too and then goes for it.
“It went against us in qualifying. 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.”
As well as the mention of Perez’s mindset, Jos Verstappen also sent a warning to the rest of the grid that the performance of the RB19, which has so far taken two one-twos, is only going to get better.
“It looks like we will be dominant,” the 51-year-old said. “We have a very good car. If you saw how easily they drove away now too: a second faster.
“Whether that can be overtaken by the rest this year? I don’t know. But it’s not like we’re standing still either, huh. We are also coming up with updates.”
