F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Photo proof Red Bull breached F1 rules, Max Versteppen a ‘sore loser’

A former F1 world champion has taken aim at Max Verstappen’s apparent petulance in Azerbaijan telling the Red Bull star to stop sulking.

Oscar Piastri races at Baku. Picture: Mark Thompson/Getty Images

A former F1 world champion has taken aim at Max Verstappen’s apparent petulance in Azerbaijan calling the Red Bull star a “poor loser.”

The reigning world champion continued his criticism of the sprint format all weekend in Baku after tradition Grand prix qualifying was moved to Friday to allow space for a shootout and sprint race on Saturday in a new format being tested by the FIA.

Despite finishing third in the sprint race, Verstappen called for the whole notion of sprints to be scrapped.

“Just scrap the whole thing,” he said. “We have to make sure that every team can fight for a win, that’s what we have to try and aim for and (not) try to implement all this kind of artificial excitement.

“It’s not proper racing, it’s more like gambling. I think I will have more success in Vegas if I go to the casino. So yeah, I like racing, I’m a pure racer and I think this is more for the show.”

Max Verstappen made some stinging comments in Baku

Damon Hill was less that impressed by Verstappen’s saltiness and didn’t hold back in his assessment of the Red Bull star’s weekend.

“We should just give Max Verstappen the world championship title now then and not bother with anything else,” he said on Sky F1. “Sorry but that’s just sulking, it’s poor loser.

“This is the same for everyone, it’s the same competition. He should be thinking about tomorrow, thinking about the championship.”

Vestappen made headlines throughout the weekend. After the sprint he labelled George Russell a d***head on live TV after the Mercedes driver collided with him causing significant damage to his car.

The Dutchman’s refusal to backdown in heated exchanges echoes the stubbornness of Michael Schumacher and Ayrton Senna, according to Hill.

“This is the sort of mindset you see in the sort of people like [Michael] Schumacher and [Ayrton] Senna, they will not accept that they have any part to play in stuff that happens,” Hill explained.

“If you cast your mind back to let’s say Monza, with Lewis Hamilton, he just didn’t back out of the corner. So he’s done it himself.

“He’s a hard racer, they’re both hard racers, George and Max, and this is what happens when you get a rock and a hard place together.”

DID RED BULL BREAK THE RULES?

Footage from pitlane suggests Red Bull may find themselves summoned before the FIA for rule breaches after images of their engineers climbing and celebrating on the wall emerged.

It has been barely a month since FIA race director Niels Wittich introduced new rules which state: “It is forbidden for personnel to climb on pit wall debris fences at any time. Any action by a team breaching this ban will be reported to the stewards.”

As Sergio Perez crossed the line in Baku to claim victory and trim his teammate’s world championship lead to just six points, Red Bull personnel were seen rushing over to cheer their man.

Red Bull team principal Christian Horner insists there is nothing to answer.

“The regulations I think are quite clear and it was something the team manager discussed with the mechanics before the race. All of them had their feet in contact with the concrete wall. I think you’ll find they were where they should be.”

Images however suggest that unless the personnel are at least eight feet tall, there are certainly some feet not on the ground.

Images of the Red Bull personnel celebrating in pitlane

PIASTRI’S DRAMATIC 3KG WEIGHT LOSS AMID HORROR SICKNESS

Sergio Perez won Sunday’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix with teammate Max Verstappen in second to ram home Red Bull’s supremacy over the rest of the Formula One grid.

Ferrari’s pole-sitter Charles Leclerc completed the podium, a respectable third. “Vamos!” exclaimed the Mexican on the team radio after making it a hugely profitable weekend in Baku where he also claimed Saturday’s sprint race.

It came as Aussie Oscar Piastri finished three seconds out of the points in 11th in a gallant effort after battling food poisoning throughout the weekend.

Piastri’s manager Mark Webber revealed the 21-year-old had lost 3 kilograms since arriving in Baku.

Piastri had been in contention for points but saw his race ruined by a poor pit stop form the McLaren team.

“Not felt great all weekend so frustrated not to get points but happy to be fighting for top 10 positions throughout. Time to recover ahead of Miami!” Piastri said on social media.

He added: “Today’s probably been the best I’ve felt all weekend, which isn’t saying much. “It’s been very difficult physically, especially yesterday it was pretty rough.

“I think I had about four pieces of toast for the whole weekend. So I need to get some food back in me before Miami.

“It’s been been tough, happy to see the end of it, but I still learnt a lot today on tyre management and stuff like that. So we’ll have a look and see what we can do better next time.”

Not felt great all weekend so frustrated not to get points but happy to be fighting for top 10 positions throughout. Time to recover ahead of Miami! #OP81#F1#AzerbaijanGP 🇦🇿 pic.twitter.com/M5Rej9j8jH

— Oscar Piastri (@OscarPiastri) April 30, 2023

Red Bull boss Christian Horner acknowledged Perez’s “sensational weekend”.

“He’s always been outstanding on this track, I don’t know what it is about Azerbaijan, but he absolutely excels here.”

Red Bull’s roll through 2023 after four races now reads four wins plus Saturday’s sprint, three poles, and three 1-2s.

Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by just six points ahead of the fifth round of the record 23-race season in Miami.

Perez’ engineer told him on the team radio he was the “king of the streets” and with justification as five of his six F1 wins – not counting Saturday’s sprint – have come on street circuits, twice in Baku alongside victories in Saudi Arabia, Monaco and Singapore.

The popular Perez, who believes he can really challenge Verstappen for the title, said: “It really worked out today for us (me), we managed to keep the pressure on Max. I think it was very close between us, we pushed to the maximum, we both hit the wall a few times but we (I) managed to keep him under control.” Leclerc conceded that for the time being at any rate Red Bull were in “another league once it comes to the race”.

Sergio Perez celebrates the win. Picture: Alex Pantling/Getty Images

“Over 51 laps it was not possible, they have so much more pace than we do. Everyone is working flat out to understand what we can do in the races to close the gap.”

Safety car

The warmest day of a frenetic sprint weekend had the drivers arriving onto the grid, umbrellas perched on their cars.

After a resounding rendition of the national anthem the covers came off the tyres and the lights went out with pole-sitter Leclerc holding off Verstappen to the 90 degree turn one.

The Dutch ace had the Ferrari in his cross hairs though, waiting to pounce. The inevitable happened on lap four as the Red Bull star nipped past, leaving Leclerc sandwiching the Red Bulls.

Perez inched closer to the slower red rival and duly coasted past on lap six. Verstappen pitted on lap 10 leaving Perez in control but then the safety car intervened to clear Nyck De Vries’s stricken Alpha Tauri after hitting a wall.

All the leaders used the safety interlude to take a free pit stop with racing resuming under a safety car restart on lap 13.

Perez managed that slickly as Verstappen got the better of Leclerc to leave the Red Bulls in front.

At the midway point Perez led from Verstappen with Leclerc a forlorn 13sec behind, and that’s as it ended up in a race that will not figure on most fans top five of the season.

Fernando Alonso only narrowly missed out on a fourth consecutive podium, the 41-year-old Spaniard finishing fourth in the Aston Martin ahead of Carlos Sainz in the other Ferrari.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton was in sixth ahead of Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin.

George Russell, who secured the point for the fastest lap, was ninth for Mercedes with Yuki Tsunoda’s Alpha Tauri rounding out the top 10.

Verstappen was relaxed at his teammate taking the limelight.

“We know it’s a very long season, you keep learning – it can never be perfect all the time.”

Originally published as F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix: Photo proof Red Bull breached F1 rules, Max Versteppen a ‘sore loser’