Sergio Pérez made some “strange maneuvers”.

(Motorsport-Total.com) – “He’s pushing me off the track like crazy,” Carlos Sainz radioed on the final stage of the 2023 Austrian Grand Prix in Spielberg. It was meant for Red Bull’s Sergio Pérez, with whom Sainz dueled over several laps for the final podium spot.

Sainz called out again shortly afterwards on the radio, but the race stewards did not intervene. “He made some strange maneuvers,” explains the Ferrari driver after the race.

“I had the feeling that when we were side by side he threw the car in my direction, which honestly surprised me a bit,” said Sainz, who stressed that it was basically a “good fight” and a nice duel.

“I haven’t spoken to Carlos yet. I don’t know what he means by that,” he says and explains that the duel was “not really” aggressive. “We just had a good fight. They were especially strong coming out of turn three,” he says.

Perez is finally back on the podium

“I have a little more time [zum Überholen] necessary. Once I was on the inside of Turn 4 and suddenly there was Haas on the inside of Turn 4 so I had to back off. It took a little longer than I wanted, but we finally made it.”

As Red Bull team principal Christian Horner confirmed: “It was a match between the two drivers and both seemed to be driving very aggressively. It was good to watch, it was fun, it was tough and competitive racing.”

He explains that the duel was not unfair. For Pérez, after a second place in the race, it was another top 3. “We knew he was capable of it,” Horner said, after the Mexican had not previously been on the podium since the Miami race in early May.

“Sometimes I think he puts too much pressure on himself,” Horner said, adding that Perez did well on Saturday and Sunday. Only on Friday was he “disappointed” with a poor result in qualifying.

A VSC stop cost Sainz several stops

The virtual safety car, among other things, helped the race catch up in the early stages. “The strategists told us that wear and tear was low and Checo would benefit greatly from this [nicht unter dem VSC zu stoppen]’ explains the team leader.

“If there had been a safety car, we would have pulled over,” Horner said. But other pilots’ pit stops behind VSC were used to pull Pérez out of traffic and forward. “We’ve been very successful,” says a satisfied Horner.

Because before the VSC stage, Perez was only 9th, and after that he was 3rd. “We were surprised that so many cars came into the pits at VSC because it was still very early for the pitstop strategy. So it was surprising that both Ferraris came to the pits,” Horner said.

Ferrari brought both pilots into the pits at the same time, both pit stops were not perfect and lasted over four seconds each. As a result, Sainz lost two positions to Lewis Hamilton and Lando Norris – and a call to Charles Leclerc.

Sainz: A podium was possible

“Honestly, I’m very happy with my performance,” says Sainz, stressing that he showed some good maneuvering in the race and defended himself “very well”. “I managed my tires well while attacking at the same time,” says the Spaniard.

For this reason he was “disappointed” after the race, because in fact a better result than fourth place could have been achieved. On top of everything Sainz then also received a subsequent penalty for breaching track limits and even dropped to sixth in the final standings.

“P2 or P3” was possible in Spielberg, which was also proven by its strong pacing on Saturday. “I’m very fast this year, especially in racing,” said Sainz. Even more disturbing is that in Spielberg he was sixth on paper at the end.