Red Bull’s Chief Technical Officer, Adrian Newey, revealed that the damage sustained on Sergio Perez’s RB19 was the limit of what it could take at the 2023 Dutch Grand Prix.
Barrelling towards Turn 1, the Mexican driver aquaplaned under braking and missed the corner. As he approached the wall, Perez spun his car around and the rear end of his Red Bull collided with the barrier.
He was able to continue and when the red flag was signalled following Zhou Guanyu’s crash at the same corner, his team was able to inspect the damage done and Newey later revealed Perez was quite lucky.
“There was a bit of damage to the bean wing which we managed to repair under the red flag,” Newey told the press. “If there hadn’t been a red flag, would it have made it without falling apart? I don’t know.
“Had there not been a red flag, it was right on the edge of structural integrity.”
Perez was then penalised for speeding in the pit-lane and survived a crash with the wall on entry but managed to hold it together to finish fourth, limiting the points loss to Fernando Alonso in the Driver’s Championship.
Alonso finished second and gained six points over Perez, in their race for the runners-up spot to Max Verstappen.
Where is the next F1 2023 race?
Perez now leads the Spanish driver by 33 points with nine rounds to go and will look to extend his gap at the Italian Grand Prix which will be held from 1-3 September.
Championship leader Max Verstappen bids to win his 10th race in a row, to break the record for most consecutive wins set in 2013.
