Not everyone is siding with Sergio Perez after teammate Max Verstappen declined to do him a favour at the Brazilian Grand Prix.
Dutch Grand Prix chief Jan Lammers has slammed the Mexican for his "below the belt" comments, after he questioned the world champion's character for refusing to give his place up late on. Verstappen had been ordered by his team to allow his partner to move into P6, which would have sent him second in the standings above Charles Leclerc.
Instead, Perez will head to Abu Dhabi level on points with the Monegasque man, and also with fresh questions over the internal harmony at Red Bull. The most brutal assessment came from Algemeen Dagblad journalist Arjan Schouten, who wrote "something seems to have seriously snapped" between the pair.
Over team radio, Perez told his engineers that: "This shows who [Verstappen] really is." He later told reporters: “I don’t understand what his reaction was. If he has two championships, it is thanks to me."
But amid the two-time world champion coming in for heavy criticism, Lammers thinks Perez went too far with defamatory comments: "Perez says Verstappen owes his two titles to him,” he told NOS.
"But he also said he has now seen Verstappen’s true nature which I think it quite personal. It’s a personal insult to Max’s character, which was unnecessary and below the belt."
Lammers also suggested that Perez should be grateful for the team elevating him, adding: “Because if Red Bull had demanded in his contract that he finish third,” he said, “I think he would have signed with a very thick marker.”
The ill-feeling seemingly dates back to qualifying in Monaco, when Perez crashed, inadvertently preventing the Dutch driver bettering him. But Lammers did concede a one-two season finish would be a fitting tribute to Red Bull’s former owner Dietrich Mateschitz, who died last month.
“He had the chance to take part in the team’s first one-two. He made a choice,” said Lammers. “A one-two is a nice gesture towards Dietrich Mateschitz. I think this is more about Verstappen and Perez than the team.”
