Kevin Magnussen clear that Sergio Perez saw him in F1 Monaco GP crash, but isn’t terming him as a dirty driver or so for the incident.
Having had the chance to review the F1 Monaco GP incident, Haas’ Magnussen insists that Red Bull’s Perez had seen him coming through, but still he went ahead to intimidate him and inadvertently cause a chain reaction taking three cars out at one go.
The stewards deemed it as a racing incident much to the surprise of Perez, while Magnussen didn’t wish to blame anyone per se. The Dane though questioned himself for trusting the Mexican to give him space, which he will be mindful the next time.
“I’ve looked at it many times,” said Magnussen. “It’s always one thing right when it happens, but your view of what happens often changes when you see it from the outside. But in this case, it didn’t change so much. The accident, in my view, it was not what I wanted to happen. It’s a costly thing for the team and unnecessary.
“The thing is, he had seen me and I knew he had seen me. It’s one thing if you’re not sure he’s seen you, then I perceive the risk as being bigger. In that case, if I wasn’t sure that he’d seen me, I probably would have just backed off. But it was very clear to me that he had seen me. So I thought ‘he’s going to leave a car’s width’.
“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’s width. Maybe with my experience, I should have known that certain drivers don’t always leave a car width. There is always a risk that they won’t,” summed up Magnussen.
When asked if there was any chance to pull out of the move, the Dane reckoned it was too late when the realisation kicks in. Since he thought Perez has seen him, he didn’t think of pulling out but expected enough gap for both to get through which didn’t happen.
“You get to a point where you’re so close to the wall, and his rear wheel comes out, so you’re locked in – because if you brake then, he’s going to hit your front wheel with his rear,” said Magnussen. “There is a point of no return and you’re at his mercy. But leading up to that, I had full confidence that he had seen me because as soon as I got that momentum, he went to the right to cover me.
“You can see his head. You know, he’s seen me – there’s no doubt. I can go and look at his onboard afterwards – and I can see that he’s checking his mirror several times. Had I not been confident that he’d seen me, I would have probably backed out,” summed up Magnussen, who doesn’t term Perez as a dirty driver but just the one who misjudged it.
“I don’t see Checo as a dirty driver or anything,” noted Magnussen. “But I was surprised that he didn’t leave me the room. Clearly, he was just pushing me to the wall to intimidate me and have me back out. But that’s certainly not 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. So yeah, 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 a costly day, it was not like we were in a very good position on the grid, starting last with both cars, it wasn’t really going to be a great day, no matter what.
“It is more the cost that incurs like this is very costly to the team. So that is the worst thing about it, except for everyone being okay, that is the worst thing about it,” summed up Magnussen, as teammate Nico Hulkenberg has closed the chapter already on the incident, noting the mood being good for now.
“It’s good,” he said, when asked about the mood around the team. “I mean, yeah, it happened, but, it’s done and dusted. No point… There was not much to debrief or dwell on it. Obviously, you know, look forward and focus on the task and the racing ahead now.”
Here’s Kevin Magnussen on growing frustration
Here’s Ayao Komatsu on communication lack
Here’s Haas pair on Lap 1 crash
Here’s FIA on disqualifying both Haas cars
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