F1 News: Jenson Button On Max Verstappen's Brazilian GP Controversy Sergio Perez
F1 champion, Jenson Button, has commented on Max Verstappen refusing to follow his Red Bull team orders at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Button said he was "amazed" by the intense radio exchanges when Verstappen didn't let his teammate, Sergio Perez, past in order to help him gain more points to get closer to taking second place in the driver's championship.
We heard on the team radio exchanges Perez say "this shows who he really is" when Verstappen did not let him past. When Verstappen's race engineers asked him why he didn't let Perez past, he said "I gave my reasons".
Speaking about the moment on Any Driven Monday, Button explained:
"I'm more amazed by Checo's comment, I love it, 'shows who he really is. It's a tricky one because we just hear one side of it, we don't hear what his reasons are.
"It doesn't come across well, and when you hear his comments saying 'no I'm not letting him past, I've got my reasons', if we don't hear the reasons we think Max is being selfish, he's not thinking about the team or his team-mate.
There has been a lot of speculation since the moment on Sunday, that Verstappen was referring to the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying session where Perez crashed. Perez was ahead of Verstappen when he crashed which stopped Verstappen finishing his lap and Perez then went on to win the race on the Sunday. Picking up on these rumours, Button said:
"I did see something in the media, I don't know if it's factual, but I think he was very upset about the Monaco Grand Prix qualifying where Checo ended up in the wall.
"Maybe that's his reason for not wanting to give the place up to Checo because it hurt his qualifying in Monaco and maybe he thought Checo found the wall easier than he should have."
Team principal, Christian Horner, said after the race that the whole team is focussed on helping Perez get second place in the driver's championship. The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will be wrapping up the season this weekend and Perez and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc are going into the race on exactly the same points as the battle for second continues.
The reasoning behind Verstappen's reaction to the team orders has been explored by F1FAll, fans are placing blame partly on Verstappen's parents as well as Christian Horner.
"Max could have come out of this so well, the world champion letting his team-mate past so he can fight for second in the championship,"
"You've got to ask Red Bull, if they have discussed this beforehand as Max said then why are they asking him to do it in the race?
"It feels like they haven't discussed it properly before the race weekend as a team and that seems like a bigger issue, it seems Red Bull have put themselves in this situation which definitely is negative marketing.
Button continued:
"It's a real shame because like I say it could have been a perfect end to the race. The mistake in the early part of the race with Lewis was an incident we didn't want to see, but to come out and say 'here you go Checo, here's a couple of points and now you're second in the championship, we're going to finish first and second', it's awesome.
"But that story is not the story we have."