Hill warns Leclerc not to be too critical of Ferrari

The blunder at Ferrari allowed Sergio Perez to win the race and Max Verstappen to beat his rival Charles Leclerc. Former world champion Damon Hill does not rule out Perez continuing the good results in Baku and warns Leclerc not to be too critical of his team.

"The whole championship is upside down now," Hill begins in an interview with Sky Sports. With his victory, Perez is still only fifteen points behind teammate Verstappen. Between the Red Bull Racing drivers, Leclerc is still in second place, but after the Monaco GP, a title race is underway between three drivers. Hill: "Baku suits Perez well, so maybe there we will see an attack from him on the championship lead."

Hill is more concerned about the relationships between driver and team at Ferrari. The Briton saw and heard Leclerc's frustration after his team's blunder around pit stops. Although the analyst can understand the anger of the Monegasque he does think: "You can only criticize your team up to a certain point before it becomes a PR problem. After all, Ferrari won't budge. When it comes to a fight between Ferrari and a driver, Ferrari wins."

Ferrari still finished second with Carlos Sainz, taking the initiative on race strategy himself, but threw away Leclerc's track position with the hasty pit stop behind Sainz. The team was defeated by Red Bull partly as a result of this. Hill therefore sees Ferrari's post-race protest about Verstappen possibly crossing the line on his way out of the pit lane as an admission of weakness: "It was a bit of a desperate attempt. If you lose a race, a protest against such an offence is only weak."