The first Grand Prix of the Formula 1 season was not without its challenges for Red Bull, and Sunday’s events showed that despite having the fastest car, it doesn’t guarantee race wins or podiums.
In Bahrain on Sunday, Sergio Pérez saw his car come to a screeching halt. But the Mexican kept his cool and managed to get the car back on track. And at Red Bull, everyone was very impressed by the presence of mind of the former Racing Point driver.
Not everything went according to plan for Red Bull on Sunday in Bahrain at the first Grand Prix of the year. In addition to Max Verstappen’s lost battle with Lewis Hamilton, Sergio Pérez was the victim of a very curious incident.
During the formation lap, the Mexican saw his car come to a dead stop and was naturally relegated to last place. However, even though he had no radio contact with his team, the former Racing Point driver managed to restart his car and resume the race as if nothing had happened.
In the end, Sergio Pérez finished in fifth place, just behind Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas. The Red Bull team praised the 31-year-old driver’s presence of mind.
“He was brilliant. He didn’t get frustrated. He didn’t lose his motivation. He kept on doing it. He moved up the field, had a great race and got us a lot of points when on the formation lap he was parked on the side of the road with a dashboard off, no power in the car and everything else.
“Thank God for his presence of mind. He had no radio communication, you can’t tell him to do the reset to turn the car back on. And he did it for us,” said Red Bull race engineer Paul Monaghan.
The race hinted at a serious battle royale for 2021 between Red Bull and Mercedes, something F1 fans have been itching for since 2014.
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On every level this failure was arguably a miss of epic proportions….. READ MORE ON THIS STORY
29 times Hamilton exceeded track limits. His lasting advantage was the time he gained that put him ahead of Verstapen. He won by breaching the track limits. It in itself is unsportsmanlike like behaviour..