Sergio Perez, Christian Horner reveal the radio message of no talk during the F1 Belgian GP weekend if not a Top 5 result.
Considering the back results from Red Bull’s Perez especially in qualifying where he missed Q3 in five straight grands prix, team boss Horner laid down a challenge to the Mexican during last weekend’s F1 Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps.
As per their discussion, Horner told Perez that they will not talk for the whole of the Belgian GP weekend if he is unable to qualify in the Top 5 on Friday. Since it was a sprint weekend, the qualifying took place a day earlier which meant it was two days without any talk.
But fortunately, Perez managed to set the third best time and save himself. The penalty to Max Verstappen had him start from the front row as he cleared Charles Leclerc on Lap 1 itself. He ended up second still after the Dutchman passed him on Lap 17.
“It was a joke,” said Perez when asked about the funny bet with Horner. “He came before qualifying and said ‘if you’re not in the top five, I will not talk to you the rest of the weekend’. So he was talking to me the rest of the weekend.”
Horner concurred and noted that they could try again after summer break. “Look I told him that I wasn’t going to talk to him if he wasn’t in the top five and I would squeeze a part of his anatomy if he wasn’t,” he said. “So it seemed to do the job, so we’ll have to try that again in Zandvoort.”
Here’s Sergio Perez on struggles with medium tyre
Here’s Max Verstappen on his Belgian GP