Perez’s driving “not right”, says Rosberg

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

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Nico Rosberg criticised Sergio Perez’s driving after the pair made contact during the Japanese Grand Prix.

Perez picked up a left-rear puncture after Rosberg’s front wing touched his tyre at the hairpin.

“With Perez, was not right what he did,” said Rosberg in an interview with Sky. “Definitely dangerous.”

“The rules are clear if you brake and close the door you can’t move out again. I was there and he didn’t leave space so…

“But it worked out perfectly, he broke his tyre, I was through. So that was good there.”

Rosberg had no complaints about his drive-through penalty after the team released him into Perez’s in the pits earlier in the race.

“For sure well deserved,” said Rosberg of the penalty, “and I knew it was coming too”.

“It was obvious, a dangerous release so that was that and just a pity that happened and from then on it was always going to be difficult. I just dropped back so much and tried to fight through even some enjoyable battles at times.”

He ended the race eighth behind Esteban Gutierrez: “After that bit of a pity that I didn’t manage to pass Gutierrez in the end but as we know it’s not so easy to pass a Sauber.”

Rosberg said it had been “a very bad day” for Mercedes who lost more ground in the constructors’ championship after Lewis Hamilton retired early on.

No not ideal but still plenty of races to go and we’re still a bit stronger than Ferrari so I’m still confident we can make it happen.”

2013 Japanese Grand Prix

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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31 comments on “Perez’s driving “not right”, says Rosberg”

  1. Sure, he’s too aggressive at times – I absolutely agree. But it’s far better than his previous self, the one that almost chickened out of every battle. Ricciardo was really exciting today, too.

    1. So Rosberg unhappy with the two mexicans. Isn’t Rosberg the one who unsafe released himself on Perez.

      He should be unhappy with his race. He was nowhere.

      1. He was making a pretty decent race before the penalty.

      2. You’re making things up. He was only unhappy with the Perez move, but even then he told that in the end the result of that contact is good for him. He also acknowledge the unsafe release which wasn’t his fault but the team’s fault. He was actually in a good position (for the car they have) before the drive through.

        1. I might add that at first I think the unsafe release was team error, I haven’t thought about Rosberg ignoring the light (since someone talk about Rosberg ignoring the red light) which might happen, but the thing is that he acknowledge it was an error from his side.

          1. +1 Rosberg can’t be blamed for the unsafe release, that was a team error. It’s unfortionate however the driver usually pays the price.

      3. @jeff1s Not sure if you know how pit stops work but when an unsafe release or other pit stop related incidents happen it falls on the team and to punish the team they give the driver a penalty. So just because Rosberg was given the drive through doesn’t mean he was in control of the release, he can’t see the car behind him and he doesn’t activate the light to go.

        1. It was said on the broadcast that the light was still red, Rosberg chose to ignore the light.

        2. @magillagorilla, I’ve been following F1 for 20 years, so of course I don’t know how pit stops work kid!

          Rosberg burnt the red light of his stop, he pushed the throttle too early, the light was red, he had a penalty, his fault.

          1. @jeff1s Well first off the feed I had didn’t show that and the secondary feed also didn’t show it so that’s that. I have been following f1 for almost 20 years (next year). So it’s funny that you’d stoop so low to assume I’m a kid and display emotion on the internet. Quite entertaining way for you to lash out rather than debate the subject. I wasn’t saying it to be rude there are many users that come on here that like F1 but still don’t fully know the ins and outs.

            However, if you wish to keep taking the low ground it will perpetuate who the true child here is. Now if I called you some name and then proceeded to ask if you knew, I could see the need to defend my questioning and your ego, but that isn’t the case thus a simple yes would obviously suffice.

    2. To be Honest Rosberg is nt particularly keen to leave space for another driver either.. Pushing Hamilton and Alonso out of the track last year comes to my mind .. and Button was repeatedly complaining about Rosberg moving too much under breaking in one of the earlier races this year …

      1. This is true.

      2. How could NR push FA and LH off the track last year when they were never beside him with any part of their car? I don’t think NR is guilty of anything but what all other drivers have done at some point. And even if he had a reputation for being ruthless or aggressive, that still wouldn’t disallow him from being the offended party of a specific incident.

  2. Mercedes seriously needs to sort out their non-technical side. Their startegies are more often than not terrible, and what happened today to Rosberg in pits was laughable, in a very bad way.

  3. Bit rich from the guy who doesn’t know what a red light means.

    1. Are you sure he was ignoring the lights or the team just release him too early?

      1. On Sky Sports, Johnny Herbert presented some footage that showed that the light was still red when Rosberg left the pit box.

  4. To be honest this one was a racing incident. That said, Perez does have a history of bad driving this year and he could avoided it, but in the end, Suzuka is Suzuka. Things like this one happen.

  5. Pretty sure passing Esteban and Hulk are two different things. And considering Fernando and Kimi both passed Hulk I don’t think its right to point to Korea.

  6. For all reasons Mercedes are having their dull end of season patch despite the technical side being okay . Sad day for a Mercedes fan . It all came apart after the first corner :( and to top that just when I was thinking Rosberg has got a solid fourth or even an outside chance of a podium , he went wide , got a penalty and what not !!

  7. Im sure these comments from rosberg a borne from another frustrating race, he just isnt getting the breaks recently

    In the last 3 races he been looking at 2nd in singapore, 3rd in korea and 4th in japan but due to little niggles be it strategy, failures or mistakes ended up with 4th, 7th and 8th

  8. Perez’s form is declining again at this time of year. He was driving poorly last year after he signed Mclaren. And he’s doing it again.

    Overall this year he is in his worst season since his debut with Sauber. He showed some promise in the middle part of the season. But he lacks lots of maturity and respect towards other drivers on track. His speed isn’t impressive either. Yes, Button is not a slow driver, but Hamilton’s shoes are just too big for Perez.

    I hope Mclaren won’t retain Perez and signs other young driver. They should sign Hulkneberg, but if they don’t, they have 2 much more promising young drivers in van Doorne and Magnussen.

    1. Who and who?
      Does anyone seriously expect a young driver (who has already shown tons of promise in F1) to come into a new team, be handed a dog of a car and then immediately display Lewis Hamilton levels of driving?
      Get real.
      They need to give him a competitive car and another twelve months to have any idea of what he may be capable of – anything else is just a cop-out.

      1. Well, Hamilton did amazing things with underdog car in 2009. He was the driving force in overturing that car into race winner. And it was race winner only in Hamilton’s hands. And I’m not Hamilton’s fan, but I respect his speed and abilities.

        1. The point the OP was making is that 2009 was not Hamilton’s debut year, 2007 was and he had an (illegally) good car then

          1. The car was not illegal.

  9. Yeah, I think Vettel complained about Perez too – that Perez wasn’t letting him lap him and that he was losing time thanks to that.

  10. “…as we know it’s not so easy to pass a Sauber.”

    Great interview and quite funny. However, I think this is just Nico deflecting blame for an unnecessary incident. There was no getting around Perez at that chicane. It was fair racing and I think Nico knows that. Nico poked his nose in, knowing that he could take him on the straight with DRS, and accidentally damaged Checo’s tire and his own front wing. Nico knows it was a dumb mistake so he blames Perez…

  11. It was a racing incident. Rosberg is just making a mountain out of a molehill because he couldn’t capitalise on Hamilton’s retirement. As has been mentioned, it’s like pot calling the kettle black in terms of not leaving space.

  12. Tought was the other way around, ROS ruined Perez race twice ! Let alone a Mclaren Pitstop special, which btw I tought were reserve only when wins or podiums are possible.
    Mclaren sucks and both drivers are getting the guilt, Sauber did manage to turn the car around, what a joke !

    1. Btw Perez would love to give this car to Hulk and go to Lotus, and actually will be funny if Perez has a car performance clausule on contract and is the one holding up the renewal, which translate in Button waiting on jeopardy too.
      Sincerely the contracts with cash guys should be sealed, just look at smart williams and Maldonado ready to quit F1 than drive a dog, but Mclare still got to learn that one my guess is NO WIN NO CASH from SLIM.

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