Magnussen looks back on incident with Perez: 'Shouldn't have trusted him'

F1 News

Magnussen on Monaco incident with Perez
6 June at 19:27
4
  • Tygo Bekkema

Magnussen and Perez were involved in a major incident on the first lap at the last Grand Prix in Monaco. Hillside there appeared to be too little space for both cars thus a big crash occurred between the drivers. The Dane does not necessarily blame himself.

"I was surprised. I don't see Checo as, a dirty driver or anything, but I was surprised that he didn't leave me the room," the Haas driver stated on media day ahead of the upcoming Grand Prix in Canada to GPblog and others.

Magnussen unapologetic about Perez's driving style

Magnussen is widely known as a driver who is quite ruthless defensively. He tells his side of the story after the incident. "Clearly, he was just pushing me to the wall to intimidate me and have me back out, but I don't think that's the way we should be racing. he can't argue that he didn't see me. He saw me. There's no way around it. He did see me. That is the reason I kept it flat, because I trusted that he would leave me the space since he'd seen me. It was very costly to the team. That is the worst thing about it."

In conclusion, the Dane says he will probably handle it differently next time. "It was very clear to me that he had seen me, so I thought, okay, he's going to leave a car width, and I trusted that he was going to do that, which in hindsight, I shouldn't have trusted him, but that doesn't change the fact that he didn't leave a car width. Maybe with my experience, I should have known that certain drivers don't always leave a car width and there is always a risk that they won't," Magnussen said.