Sergio Perez says Red Bull has reassured him they will support his chances for wins following the order given at the Spanish Grand Prix.
The Mexican was asked to move aside for teammate Max Verstappen shortly after the world champion had completed his final pit stop, easing his path to victory in Barcelona.
While it is highly likely the Dutchman would have simply passed Perez anyway, seeing Red Bull issue an instruction this early in the season left Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in no doubt over who his true championship rival is.
“Red Bull made it clear what are their intentions and they did it very early in the season,” he said via Sky Sports on Friday.
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“Concerning us [and team orders], I haven’t spoken about it with Mattia [Binotto, team boss] and I haven’t heard of this for now.
“I think for [Carlos] Sainz, it’s just a matter of time he gets with us and he gets more at ease with the car.
“I don’t want to rely on that either, I just want to do the job in the car and if we are strong enough, we have already made it clear we can win races anyway and if we do a strong enough job I’m pretty sure the chances are there anyway.”
Speaking in the press conference, however, Perez revealed the outcome of post-race talks with his team.
“Yeah, it is fairly clear,” he said. “They didn’t need to say it but it was clear.
“On my side of the garage, it was clear and inside the team, yeah, otherwise I would not be here, so it is fairly clear.
“There is a great atmosphere at Red Bull. We have great momentum so it was a great team result and they made it clear that I have the full support of the team to see me winning.”
Even so, Perez was still frustrated that Red Bull didn’t do more to optimise his chances of competing on an alternative strategy.
“Obviously, when you are in the car you only have certain information, the team has the wider picture,” he said, after initially calling the instruction “unfair” over the radio.
“In the car at the time, it felt like we could have done a better job, especially in the second stint, giving us a better shot to do the two-stop strategy to see if it could work or not.
“But it was clear that the three-stop was the way forward and it was better to go that way.
“We spoke after the race and it was clear, and we all agree, we could have done a better job in that stint to give a better shot to both strategies to see which one worked.
“At the end of the day, it was clear that a three-stop was the way to go. We both agree, are on the same page and we move on.”