Sergio Perez and Red Bull break the rules - Is their penalty too lenient?
General
- Ludo van Denderen
Possibly because of a storm of criticism from angry Red Bull Racing fans, Will Buxton has now deleted his post on X. In a Tweet, the Formula 1 presenter, who can be recognised from F1TV and Drive to Survive, had responded to the punishment of Sergio Perez after the Mexican deliberately refused to pull over his RB20, which had a broken rear wing. According to Buxton, the penalty (three-place grid penalty for Barcelona and €25,000 fine) was far too low. The British journalist also compared the incident to 2008's crash gate, where Nelson Piquet Jr's deliberate crash helped Renault teammate Fernando Alonso win the race.
After Perez put his RB20 into the wall at turn six in the closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Mexican, with no doubt, looked in the mirrors. His rear wing was hanging off of his car, and driving the rest of the race would've been impossible. With Red Bull's instructions, he drove the car back to the pits at a snail's pace as pieces of carbon fell off the car, posing a danger to the competition racing past at high speed. Perez had to bring the RB20 'home', as Red Bull did not want a safety car situation, adversely affecting front-runner Max Verstappen.
Red Bull deliberately took a risk
Later in the day, Red Bull admitted the latter to the stewards. The regulations state that a car must be sound and not pose a danger to other drivers. Red Bull is certainly not the first team to be on track with a car that is no longer in good condition, but usually, that does not result in a (hefty) penalty. It was different in this case, as the team admitted to deliberately making a run for the rules (i.e. putting the broken car aside), to prevent their other driver from potentially suffering.
It is extremely fair of Red Bull to point this out, but was it smart? The commissioners were anything but happy with this, according to the later report. Had Red Bull kept quiet and told them that there was hope of fixing the car, would only a slap on the wrist have followed?
Perez could have chosen a different solution
Perez had managed to keep his car's engine running. To avoid the safety car, he could (and should) have chosen to continue driving the car calmly until the very first point where he could park it behind the fence. There are such spots on every circuit. If Perez had done so, there would have been no safety car AND he would not have annoyed the stewards. So, all in all, it is justifiable that a penalty was imposed on Red Bull and Perez.
However, Will Buxton felt the penalty was lenient, citing Singapore 2008. That was when Nelson Piquet Jr. deliberately crashed his Renault into the wall, giving teammate Fernando Alonso an advantage. He eventually won the race. Canada '24 and Singapore '08 are, of course, of a completely different order: one is deliberate crashing, the other is deliberate driving on with damage. The only thing that can be argued - remotely - is that both ways attempted to influence the race. But in the case of Perez, it is of a totally different order than with Piquet.
A penalty for Red Bull and Perez can absolutely be explained, but a grid penalty of three spots in Barcelona and the hefty fine is more than enough. Perhaps Buxton has also realised this and has therefore deleted his posts.