Horner believes Perez would have overtaken Norris without the Safety Car in China

Red Bull boss Christian Horner believes Sergio Perez would have outperformed the drivers who opted for just one pit stop, if the Safety Car had not interrupted the Formula 1 Chinese Grand Prix.

Starting third, Perez fell back on the first lap, overtaking Fernando Alonso shortly after and consolidating P2 until his first pit stop on lap 13. However, the Mexican ended up behind Lando Norris and Charles Leclerc when the race was neutralized, allowing the pair stops with less loss of time.

Red Bull opted to make double stops for both drivers, avoiding any strategic disadvantage, but Perez restarted in fourth place. Despite overtaking Leclerc’s Ferrari and returning to the podium in P3, the Mexican was unable to catch Norris’ McLaren and crossed the finish line five seconds behind his rival.

Asked if he was surprised by Perez’s inability to overtake Norris for second place, Horner told Sky F1: “We went into the race with an aggressive two-stop strategy. The Safety Car moment couldn’t have been worse for us, especially for Checo, because we had to stop again to strategically converge with Ferrari and McLaren until the end of the race. This put Checo behind Lando and Charles on the track.”

“It took him a considerable amount of time to overtake Charles, which probably put a lot of wear on his tires. When he finally passed Charles, Checo’s tires were probably not in the best shape to catch Lando, who had a great pace. Either way, it was another very strong weekend from Checo to secure another double podium,” he added.

Horner was convinced that Perez would overtake Norris without the interruption on lap 22, caused by Valtteri Bottas’ Sauber at turn 11.

“I think the two-stop strategy would have been superior to just one. The fastest way for us to run this race would be with two stops”, explained Horner. “The Safety Car on that lap basically converted the strategy for a very long last stint, and we had to make an additional pit stop. But I believe that under normal racing conditions the two-stop strategy would have been faster. That’s how it works, you just can’t predict when the Safety Car will show up,” concluded Horner.

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