Max Verstappen robbed? ‘Red Bull fixed the 2023 Saudi Arabian GP in favor of Sergio Perez’ suspects ex-F1 team owner
Eddie Jordan feels that Red Bull did not allow Max Verstappen to race Sergio Perez in Jeddah.
Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez (Credits: Autosport)
The Red Bull F1 team finished the Saudi Arabian GP in P1 and P2 with Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen. While the Mexican driver came away with the bragging rights, a lot was made about Red Bull not allowing Verstappen to have a serious go at his teammate at the Jeddah Corniche Circuit. Eddie Jordan, the former F1 team owner, was recently asked to shed light on the same.
While talking about the shenanigans that took place on the Milton-Keynes-based team in Jeddah, Jordan added, “I’m a bit concerned because under normal circumstances, Max Verstappen would have won Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. I think there was an agreement to let Sergio Perez win the race if he had pole and led the race the whole time.”
Moreover, when asked about what would have happened if Red Bull did not let Sergio Perez win, he said, ” I was Checo, I would not have let Verstappen pass. I think it was agreed that if Verstappen made it to second and Perez was still first, he would let him win the race.” Looking at the comments of Eddie Jordan, it is quite clear that he has made a huge claim.
He had blatantly indicated that Red Bull, before the start of the Saudi Arabian GP, had a verbal agreement in place between Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen, according to which, two the latter was not allowed to race his teammate after making it to P2. The point to notice here is that the Dutchman, despite starting the race from P15, was able to make it to P2 at the event. He had the pace to push his Mexican teammate.
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Eddie Jordan believes Max Verstappen was tied down by Red Bull in Jeddah
Max Verstappen, so far in the 2023 F1 season, has proved to be in a class of his own. At the Bahrain GP, he was easily able to dominate his rivals, including Sergio Perez. Keeping that in mind, Jordan ardently believes, that had the 25-year-old been allowed to race Perez, he definitely would have managed to come out as the victor in Jeddah.
Moreover, in order to back his claim, he talked about Verstappen’s driveshaft issue at the race, “Was I surprised to hear Verstappen complain about a driveshaft? No. If you have 15 laps to go and there’s a problem with the driveshaft, then it’s going to break, and you heard the engineers say to Verstappen that the car was fine and under control, I think there was a message there. I’m probably trying to see behind-the-scenes, but I think Verstappen would have won the race if he was allowed to fight for it.“
According to Eddie Jordan, the drive shaft issue that Verstappen talked about with his team via his team radio, was nothing more than Red Bull trying its best to make Perez look like he won the Saudi Arabian GP on merit. These are big claims from Jordan, but considering that Verstappen was able to comfortably secure the victory in Australia, he could be right about the whole thing.
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Rishabh Negi
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