The engine is not to blame for Pérez's retirement
F1. Forced to retire after just eight laps, Sergio Pérez fell victim to the reliability issues of his Red Bull.
The Canadian Grand Prix puts a stop to Sergio Pérez's streak of results. After three consecutive podiums, including a victory in Monaco, the Mexican driver had to retire after less than ten laps. This is the second retirement for Red Bull number 11, following the season-opening Grand Prix in Bahrain, also due to reliability issues.
In front of the Austrian press, Helmut Marko, the sporting director of the Red Bull team, revealed what forced his driver to retire. The gearbox broke. It was nearing the end of its life, but it should have held up. There is suspicion that it could be a consequence of Sergio's accident in qualifying, even though he did not directly hit anything related to the gearbox. It's bad luck, but we saw with Leclerc how difficult it was to overtake in traffic. Just a reminder, Pérez was thirteenth on the grid and had to work hard to move up in the pack.
Marko also added that another problem could have affected Verstappen's other Red Bull. Our concern for Max was regarding brake temperatures. We were worried about that aspect. In the first part of the race, we were pushing the limits of the temperatures on the discs and pads.
This slight overheating didn't prevent Verstappen from securing his sixth victory in nine Grand Prix races this season. In the championship, he now has a 46-point lead over his teammate and a 49-point advantage over Leclerc.
