Sergio Perez thought he had injured a marshal after he returned to the track following his pit stop in the Monaco Grand Prix.
Perez had to take avoiding action after he arrived at turn one to find two corner workers standing in the pit lane exit.“Man what was wrong with those marshals?” he exclaimed on the radio. “I nearly killed him! They’re OK?” He was later told the marshals were “out of the way”.
He explained the incident to media including RaceFans after the race.
“During the Safety Car I had a marshal nearly run into me,” said Perez. “I nearly ran over two marshals.
“That was really bad. They were just running back and I was coming out of the pits. I had to brake and they were very lucky that I avoided them.”
Perez said he will raise the subject of marshal safety with the FIA as a result. “They’re normally very good. It’s obviously safety, at the end of the day it’s most important the safety for the marshals and drivers.”
As the incident was unfolding Perez was being told by his team that he would be close to Nico Hulkenberg as he rejoined the track. “Checo you’ve passed the Safety Car line one twice so you don’t need to follow the delta any more,” they added.
The Racing Point driver finished the race in 13th place behind Kevin Magnussen. The pair have been summoned to the stewards over an incident in which Magnussen drove across the chicane while trying to keep Perez behind him.
Don't miss anything new from RaceFans
Follow RaceFans on social media:
Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and
2019 F1 season
- Crying in the Melbourne car park at 2019 grand prix was my career low – Ocon
- McLaren Racing reports reduced £71 million loss in 2019
- Kvyat: Hockenheim podium last year was “my biggest achievement” so far
- How the FIA’s new encrypted fuel flow meter targets Ferrari’s suspected ‘aliasing’ trick
- “He smashed my office door”: 23 must-see moments from ‘Drive to Survive’ season two
Mach1 (@mach1)
26th May 2019, 17:31
Missed that one…
Phylyp (@phylyp)
26th May 2019, 17:33
Perez thought the same…
ColdFly (@)
30th May 2019, 15:23
;)
Jere (@jerejj)
26th May 2019, 17:54
@mach1 Same here, and that’s because this incident happened outside the world feed footage, and was never shown even as a replay later.
Ivan B (@njoydesign)
26th May 2019, 18:13
the broadcast was quite bad overall. We weren’t shown a lot of what was happening in the midfield.
Shimks (@shimks)
27th May 2019, 12:56
@njoydesign I agree. Really poor broadcast this time.
Hugh (@hugh11)
26th May 2019, 17:46
That’s. Terrifying.
anon
26th May 2019, 19:31
@hugh11, the video footage is really quite scary – it looks as if both marshals had their heads down and were just running to jump over the barrier without looking down the pit lane, and it looks more like sheer luck that the one on the left of the shot stopped just before Perez got there.
I am very surprised and worried that incident happened, because normally the standards of the marshalling and trackside operations at Monaco are meant to be some of the best in the sport. I do hope that is not a sign that safety standards for the marshals have been starting to get a bit slack, because that had worrying shades of the Tom Pryce incident from many years ago.
Ipsom
26th May 2019, 17:49
Tbh all over the track the marshals were pretty close… if any major contact would have happened at some points of the track the damage from flying debris would be fatal
LB (@burden93)
26th May 2019, 20:36
Jesus, sooo lucky. Should never happen
Damon (@damon)
26th May 2019, 21:11
Oh man, I actually thought about the risks of being a steward during the race while watching as they were cleaning up the debris from Leclerq’s car. It did not look safe at all for those guys.
spoutnik (@spoutnik)
26th May 2019, 21:32
The onboard video is absolutely frightening. For a few centimeters he would have hit both.
We often praise Monaco marshalls and they did an awesome job for the red flag in the F2 feature race.
Today however I also thought that the marshalls collecting debris on track while not all cars were behind the safety car was equally dangerous and not well handled. Fortunately noone was injured but it could very well have been.
Robert
26th May 2019, 21:39
Loud pipes save lives
Pjotr (@pietkoster)
28th May 2019, 12:27
Yes, get the sound in F1 back again. Big Twin rules.
Colly
27th May 2019, 9:44
Can anyone clarify the rule here. I thought safety car included waved yellow flags and the drivers should be looking for marshalls on the track and be prepared to stop. Ergo, the driver gunning it out of the pits would
contravene this rule/procedure?
Michael (@freelittlebirds)
27th May 2019, 14:25
Whoa, whoa – my god marshals on both sides! It’s unbelievable he missed both of them. They and Checo are so lucky.
If you add the 5 second penalty for Verstappen’s unsafe release, you can already feel the difference now that Charlie Whiting isn’t there.