Jordan comes up with theory: 'Agreement was that Pérez could win this race'

Sergio Pérez won the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix last Sunday, with his teammate Max Verstappen having to start 15th after a problem in qualifying. After a safety car, the Dutchman was five seconds behind Pérez, but he could not close this gap. Eddie Jordan thinks it was agreed within the team that the Mexican could win the race.

Pérez had no problems in qualifying and therefore managed to take pole position. The Mexican was well in the lead before the safety car came out, as Lance Stroll had to pull over his Aston Martin on the track. Suddenly, this made the gap between the two Red Bull drivers much smaller, but after Pérez and Verstappen were running in first and second respectively, the two seemed to have roughly similar pace.

After the race, there was obvious frustration among the Dutchman. But despite that, Jordan holds an interesting theory about the end of the race, suspecting that there was a deal within the team about who was allowed to take the win. “I'm a bit concerned because, under normal circumstances, Max Verstappen would have won the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. I think there was an agreement to let Sergio Perez win the race if he had pole and led the race the whole time.” Jordan said at Express.

Jordan thinks problem driveshaft was a 'signal'

Verstappen reported having problems with his driveshaft during the race, with the two-time world champion also having this problem in qualifying, forcing him to halt his qualifying in Q2. The Dutchman, however, was able to finish the race as normal. Because of this, Jordan thinks this problem was a kind of "signal" to the team. "Was I surprised to hear Verstappen complain about a driveshaft? No. If you have 15 laps to go and there's a problem with the driveshaft, then it's going to break, and you heard the engineers say to Verstappen that the car was fine and under control. I think there was a message there."