Red Bull backed their pit stop decision-making at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix despite Max Verstappen calling for a “review”.
The Dutchman led the race until he was called in to change tyres just before a Safety Car was called to remove the stricken AlphaTauri of Nyck De Vries at Turn 6.
That allowed teammate Sergio Perez the benefit of a cheaper pit-stop and thus inherit the lead which he would maintain until the chequered flag in Baku.
“I saw that there was a car stopped, I thought he maybe just locked up. In hindsight, I mean, I can’t see that but yeah, it’s something to review,” Verstappen told reporters post-race.
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“I mean, clearly you could see there was one wheel damaged and it looked like he was not going to drive that anyway back to the pits, even if he would have reversed, so something to look at, because of course that then did hurt my race after that.”
However, Red Bull boss Christian Horner quickly defended his strategy team.
“It was the optimum time to stop from a performance point of view,” he told Sky Sports.
“De Vries hasn’t hit the wall, the engine was still running and to us, it looked like he was going to reverse out and go from there.
“So we had already committed to the stop and of course, with 20-20 hindsight, you can always say should have, would have, could have but sometimes things like that just don’t go your way.
“His misfortune was Checo’s good fortune.”