Perez: Grateful for F1 safety after accident

The Red Bull driver’s race ended abruptly early on when he collided with Kevin Magnussen of Haas. The collision caused severe damage to both cars involved, as well as to the car of Nico Hülkenberg, also a teammate of the Red Bull driver.

Perez’s early retirement marked the end of a disastrous weekend for the Mexican, who suffered stability issues with his RB20 during qualifying and ended up in 18th place. His teammate and current championship leader Max Verstappen, on the other hand, struggled with driveability issues throughout the weekend but managed to complete the entire race and secure points with a sixth place finish.

After the race, Perez blamed Magnussen for the crash that ended both races early. He expressed his disappointment that the incident was not investigated, given the significant damage and danger involved. Perez stated: “I think the move was unnecessary, we suffered a lot of damage and it was a very dangerous incident. I was disappointed that it was not investigated, it was a massive accident and my car is completely destroyed.”

Despite his minor injury, Perez acknowledged that safety improvements in F1 rules have played a crucial role in preventing more serious injuries. He expressed his gratitude for the progress made in ensuring safety in the sport. Perez concluded: “Safety in F1 has made great strides and I am grateful for that. It was a bad weekend for all of us and it is frustrating, but I trust my team and my car ahead of Canada and hope we come back very strong.”

Red Bull team boss Christian Horner shared Perez’s assessment of the accident and criticised Magnussen for not leaving enough space. Horner expressed his disappointment at the incident and stressed how important Perez’s safety was. He said: “Not only did he damage his car, he also put our car out of the race, but luckily Checo came away unhurt and that is the most important thing.”

Horner admitted that Red Bull still has a lot of work to do to fix the issues with its RB20 package ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix. He explained: “I would say it was a tough weekend and Monaco is always defined by performance in qualifying, so we had a lot of challenges today. We have a lot of data to analyse from this weekend and will look at everything carefully in the coming weeks ahead of Canada.”

The Canadian Grand Prix will take place on Sunday 9 June, with racing starting at 19:00 BST (14:00 local time).