Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz reflect on their F1 Azerbaijan GP clash, with Christian Horner and Frederic Vasseur sharing their opinion too.
For most part of the F1 Azerbaijan GP, Ferrari’s Sainz was at a distant behind his teammate Charles Leclerc along with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri and Red Bull’s Perez. It was only in the final stint that the Spaniard managed to claw into the strong lead the Top 3 had.
In fact, Sainz cut through more than 10s between him and Perez to catch the Mexican and teammate Leclerc with two laps remaining. The Red Bull finally tried a move at Turn 1 but was cut off which allowed the Spaniard to sneak through to third.
When Sainz pressed on to second, he had to back off at Turn 2 exit when Perez tried to come back on him. On the lead-up to Turn 3, the Mexican stayed static with lost of space on his left, while the Spaniard tried to come back away from the wall.
Sainz was half a length ahead when Perez showed to his side and slight turn from the Spaniard resulted in a collision between the two. The stewards couldn’t blame either of the drivers and termed it as a racing incident despite Horner claiming penalty.
He felt Sainz moved to his left and caused a collision, while Vasseur noted that the Spaniard had to come back or else he would have crashed. For Horner, it was a big loss considering the form of Perez and also it cost them valuable championship points.
Both Perez and Sainz were left disappointed after the collision, but the two cleared the air on their side before seeing the stewards. The Mexican also stated that the Spaniard is the last person he would have wanted to collide with in a grand prix.
Collision –
Perez: “I’m super frustrated that we both ended up our weekends like that for our teams. And it’s just a shame, because when we exited Turn 2, there was a metre between the cars, and then within a metre or two, we ended up making contact. Obviously I understand what Carlos was trying to do, to follow Charles’s tow, but I was there, and it all happened very quickly. As he was having more speed the way he moved meant that he touched my front right tyre quite quickly. It’s a shame, because Carlos is definitely the last guy I want to have an incident with. It’s just a shame that we both ruined our weekends.
Sainz: “I am okay. Big accident. Unfortunately, I hit the barrier straight on the concrete wall. Honestly, I was coming very quickly behind Charles and Checo. I had saved my tyres well. I moved over to Checo when he was fighting Charles. Then I think we exited Turn 2, I did my normal racing line, I didn’t do any strange manoeuvre or anything, and for some reason that I still don’t understand, we collided. I think he had plenty of space to lift. I didn’t do any strange movement. But I guess that’s racing. Sometimes you do 48 laps without doing anything, and then you get to two laps, three laps to go and things like this happen.”
Horner: “It’s frustrating because Checo certainly should have been on the podium, at the very least, in third place – probably second. I think he actually could have won that race, had it not been for losing a lot of time behind Alex Albon initially, and then Lando. Whilst he was on new tyres, and Oscar was still out on the old tyres, Lando backed him up, which allowed Oscar to keep track position. I think, without that, we would have been ahead of Oscar and he would have passed Leclerc, and he would have been fine. So hugely frustrating. I have just watched the incidents several times on the SkyPad and you could quite clearly see see Carlos, if you take the wall as a reference in the white line on the right-hand side of the track, you see him look in his mirror and just drift to the left, knowing that [Checo] was there.
“Checo doesn’t move left or right so it’s hugely frustrating to lose that. If you look at the reference, you see him look in his mirror, he’s drifting left. There’s a white line on the right-hand side of the circuit. For Checo, there’s a dotted white line, and he’s smack on it. I don’t have the G-force, but it was a significant impact. So it’s three corners of the car – floor, bodywork, everything that you don’t want to have to fix when the cars are being freighted to Singapore. I would expect [a penalty] from what I have seen. I would expect it, causing that kind of incident with collision, I would be very disappointed if he weren’t to take some form of penalty.”
Vasseur: “If Horner is expecting for Carlos then I am expecting a grid penalty for Checo, he had plenty of room on the left-hand side. For racing line, he has to come back…when you are close to the wall, you have to come back because it is matter of the wall. In the end, you can’t see him because he [Checo] was behind, he had five meter to the left.”
What said when talked –
Perez: “Basically at the time, I just felt like he didn’t realise that I was there. And like I say, what disappoints me the more is that we exited Turn 2 with a metre between the cars, and we still within two metres end up making contact.
Sainz: “Yeah, we spoke. We hadn’t seen the incident when we spoke. To the stewards, I would say, that I did my normal racing line and the line that we all do on every lap of this track. Exiting Turn 2, we always drift a bit towards the left, but without doing any weird or erratic manoeuvre. Charles in front of me is going to the left also. I’m just following his slipstream, and I don’t know, Checo decides not to give him any kind of movement or space but it is too early to say.”
Frustration to lose out with undercut and podium –
Perez: “Yeah, it’s a massive frustration. It makes me feel super sad for my team, McLaren overtook us in the championship. But the positive thing is that the pace is back. I think with the upgrades we brought have brought us in contention, and that’s something we can be happy with. I think being on the dirty air with the low grip was not ideal. So I think I would have had a much better race, definitely. We had the pace for the win. I think lost two seconds with Lando holding me back, two and a half seconds. And that really prevented me to do the undercut on Piastri.”
Sainz: “I was very quick, honestly, I lot of time at the pit stop, and I had a very poor in-lap. I hit the cliff on medium tyre. That left me 10s behind but I was quickest out there and I think I was on for a second place. That’s why I am disappointed to see the points go away. But very strong pace, very strong race, really disappointing….especially on a track where I am normally on the slow side, I was quick today, so very disappointing.”
Horner: “I thought Checo had a very strong weekend and he had great pace throughout that race. To sit on the tail of that for the entire grand prix distance – he was on the pace throughout the weekend. It’s just a great shame for him not to have capitalized with a podium, which has been costly in constructors points and in crash damage. He was demonstrating race-winning performance today. Of course it’s a track that he’s always excelled at, but I think we’ve understood a few things with the car, and it was good to see certainly Checo’s car in contention for the win throughout the race.”
What stewards said: https://www.fia.com/sites/default/files/decision-document/2024%20Azerbaijan%20Grand%20Prix%20-%20Decision%20-%20Car%2055%20-%20Alleged%20incident%20with%20Car%2011.pdf
Here’s the crash: https://www.formula1.com/en/video/2024-azerbaijan-grand-prix-huge-drama-in-baku-as-perez-and-sainz-crash-on-the-penultimate-lap.1810270459616242645
Here’s how F1 Azerbaijan GP panned out
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