Sergio Perez, Racing Point, Silverstone, 2019

Perez surprised but happy Verstappen didn’t get a penalty

2019 F1 season

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Sergio Perez says he expected Max Verstappen to be penalised over his Austrian Grand Prix collision with Charles Leclerc.

However the Racing Point driver said he was pleased his rival escaped punishment and was allowed to keep his win.

“In a way I was surprised that Max didn’t get a penalty,” he said.

“But I was happy also because it’s just a precedent and hopefully they let us race more, go that far into the limit. The rule is forcing another car out of the track, it’s clear, but it didn’t happen this time. And I just hope that for the future we get some consistency there.”

Perez wants to see firmer borders around the edges of tracks which he believes would lead to fewer incidents being investigated by the stewards.

“The track layouts make it so hard for the stewards to pick up a thing, whether the drivers was forced out of the track or not,” he said. “It’s very hard.

“It should just be a gravel trap there. Not only there, in many other places, to punish the drivers more if they make a mistake and also to make it easier for the rules.

“For me it was very clear. Leclerc was forced out of the track. But it’s good at the end of the day that the stewards let the drivers race. A race should not be decided at the stewards so that’s a good thing.”

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2019 F1 season

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11 comments on “Perez surprised but happy Verstappen didn’t get a penalty”

  1. Perez n Rosberg said something correct, finally there are guys saying comments according to the rule. Many gp fans seemed not really understand the rules n just saying Verstappen’s move is legal. Anyway, consistency is more important. If anyone can collide n go, then let every driver to do the same, that’s fair.

    1. The stewards concluded the move Was legal!

    2. So only people that agree with you know what they’re talking about

      Solid

  2. I do not understand…

    First he says:
    “But I was happy also because it’s just a precedent and hopefully they let us race more, go that far into the limit. The rule is forcing another car out of the track, it’s clear, but it didn’t happen this time. And I just hope that for the future we get some consistency there.”

    … but then:

    “For me it was very clear. Leclerc was forced out of the track.

    Perhaps Perez is just trying to get attention?

    1. I wanted to highlight the exact same things! Self-negating.
      I can’t really tell if he did it on purpose or didn’t even realize the antithesis on his words there.
      A third scenario would be “we are lost in translation” tactics, pretty common for “Journalists” nowadays, but for sure something doesn’t fit there.

    2. He’s saying the penalty didn’t happen this time

    3. He is just saying the normal thing would have been a penalty but it’s good it didn’t happen in the incident of Leclerc and Verstappen since it sets an example for similar incidents from now on encouraging hard racing.

      I can’t shake away this feeling that stewards are just going to let this be a one-off and this was by no means an encouragement to hard racing but just a different decision.

    4. As @cobray points out, this is Perez saying that the simple fact that someone was ‘pushed/forced/decided to fight back and ended up off the track’ doesn’t mean it has to end as a penalty. So he is making the factual statement ‘he pushed him off the track’ as well as stating ‘but that doesn’t always mean it should be a penalty’. Which makes Perez 100% right.

  3. I love how this is shaping up – I can imagine a few drivers will go all-out in the coming races and stewards will be unable to punish anything less aggressive than Verstappen’s move. It should make for some interesting racing. I’m sure some of them will go too far and get punished anyways, but it’ll be a scandal if similar/tamer moves are punished.

    1. I’d be pushing drivers off the track all day! Lol

  4. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
    12th July 2019, 21:22

    Well apparently Checo doesn’t know the F1 rules either :-)

    There’s no rule for leaving space when overtaking…

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