Another race weekend, another dominant Max Verstappen performance. Formula 1’s trip to the Red Bull Ring was probably the perfect weekend for Verstappen, as the Dutchman topped every single outing over the three days. Being a Sprint weekend, there were two qualifying sessions and two races, with more points up for grabs. And Verstappen maximized his winnings—starting the weekend 69 points ahead of Sergio Perez and finishing it 81 points ahead. But unlike the past few race weekends, Checo proved challenging for Verstappen.

When Checo joined Red Bull in 2021, he had one primary job—to help Verstappen in any way he could so that the Dutchman won the title. He played the team game, played by the team’s rules, and helped Max win the championship. But since 2022, Checo has believed he can win the title too. With the pair fighting each other, tension started bubbling (and it was almost palpable after the Brazillian GP when Verstappen went against team orders to help Checo). Both Max & Chece have denied any tension several times, but the Austrian GP proved that that’s not true.

Tension flares between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez

After another bad qualifying performance, Perez bounced back in the Sprint Shootout and lined up next to his teammate on the front row for the Sprint. After a good getaway for both, Checo overtook Max into Turn 1. But heading into Turn 2, Perez didn’t leave any room for Max on the track and pushed him onto the grass. Max recovered, overtook him, and didn’t look back. But both of them had things to say about the other’s actions. The fight between them didn’t end there, though. In the main race, Checo started P15 while Max was on pole. The Mexican made his way through the field and recovered to third. And until the second-last lap, he had the fastest lap to his name. But Verstappen decided to pit for soft tires and take that extra point. 

While talking about Max taking the point on the F1 Nation podcast, Tom Clarkson said, “It is about one championship point, but he doesn’t need the points now. He’s too far ahead. It’s about telling the world about his dominance.” In response, Bild’s Silja Rulle said, “I find it quite interesting who he was stealing the point from. It was Checo. So maybe this shows that there is actually some tension between them.”

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While she alluded to tension, Clarkson agreed and said, I thought there was tension after the Sprint when, on that opening lap, it did get pretty tasty between those two. Yet, Max came into the press conference afterward and said, ‘Human beings are like that. You have a disagreement, you talk about it, you move on.’ And that’s what him and Checo had done.”

According to Verstappen, there is no tension between the two. But Clakson said that Christian Horner had to get involved in diffusing the situation, and if that doesn’t point to tension, what does?

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What did Christian Horner have to say?

After winning the Sprint, Horner congratulated Max on his win, and Max mentioned the incident with Checo at Turn 1, saying, “That could’ve been a big shunt. Maybe we need to have a chat about that. That was not okay.” After the two drivers got out of the car, the cameras caught them having a chat. According to Horner, they sorted the problem out.

While explaining the situation to the media, he said, “They have spoken about it. I think Checo had Max unsighted there on the right-hand side, so thankfully, they didn’t collect each other, and a 1-2 is a good result for the team.” As the team principal, he focused on the bigger picture and did his best to make it seem like there was no tension. He couldn’t have done much more.

Do you think there’s any intra-team tension between Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez?

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