Charles Leclerc insisted that he could do little to avoid contact with Sergio Perez after a turn one clash put the Mexican driver out of his home grand prix.
The Ferrari driver started from pole position but was swamped by both Red Bull drivers on the long run to the first corner. With the Ferrari caught in the middle and Perez to the outside, Leclerc and Perez collided, sending the Red Bull spinning into the run-off.While Perez rejoined the circuit, he pulled into the pits and Red Bull retire his car due to the damage he sustained. Leclerc also suffered minor damage in the collision, with his wing’s endplate dangling loose before falling off at turn one on the fourth lap.
Leclerc went on to claim the final podium position in third but noted a “lot of booing” from the crowd in the Foro Sol stadium after the race.
“Honestly, I had nowhere to go,” Leclerc insisted. “I was a bit in-between the two Red Bulls and unfortunately I touched Checo, but I had nowhere to go. So, it’s life.
“He damaged my car and unfortunately it ended the race of Checo, but on our end we maximised our race. Of course I’m disappointed to end the race of Checo like that, but I really didn’t do it on purpose and I had nowhere to go.”
After the race was red flagged midway through, Leclerc restarted on hard tyres from second place behind Verstappen. He was eventually overtaken by Lewis Hamilton, who was on the medium tyres, on lap 40.
“We struggled a little bit harder at the restart,” Leclerc admitted. “Lewis was really quick on the medium and then they managed to have a really good degradation, so they were just better today and that’s life.”
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2023 Mexican Grand Prix
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- Norris had “no chance” to beat Verstappen in Mexico even without Q1 exit
- Transcript: How Ricciardo’s race went awry soon after he was told to “bring it home”
- Mercedes see “very encouraging signs” from Austin floor update
Jim from US (@jimfromus)
29th October 2023, 23:20
LEC’s onboard seem to show that he hadn’t turned right into the corner when PER did.
Nick T.
29th October 2023, 23:33
That’s what happens when there’s a car immediately to your right. And exactly why what Perez did was so hopeless and bizarre.
Doggy
29th October 2023, 23:25
This event is a copy/paste of Ham/Russell’s encounter…
Leclerc did nothing wrong. It was Checo over optimistic approach that led to the accident.
Coventry Climax
29th October 2023, 23:28
I wouldn’t call it over optimistic. He indeed had a very good start. But going for the outside and then steer straight at the apex when there’s two cars inbetween, isn’t optimistic, but lacking judgement.
Euro Brun (@eurobrun)
29th October 2023, 23:37
Given Perez said himself that if it have worked, he’d have been P1, I do think he was being over optimistic, or at least over confident!
100% Perez fault.
The booing, whilst I understand it from a partisan crowd, and a bit panto, is harsh on Leclerc
David (@nvherman)
30th October 2023, 0:23
@eurobrun Pérez may like to think that if it had worked he would’ve been P1, but he’s miscalculated: over of the other drivers was Verstappen, and I can’t see Verstappen giving up on the P1 he’d just taken, quite so easily
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th October 2023, 2:20
Yes, indeed, I think it was a slim chance to come out p1, most likely p2 for perez.
BasCB (@bascb)
30th October 2023, 7:42
This move really would only have worked if Leclerc would have somehow braked far earlier for the corner, and I see no good reason why he would even do that instead of just driving to try and stay ahead of Max.
Jordan (@hunkulese)
29th October 2023, 23:25
Perez needs to find a new career. How has he still not figured out that he’s in the best car and he just needs to make it to the processional part of the race and he’ll be fine. It doesn’t really matter whose fault it was, just go wide.
Coventry Climax
29th October 2023, 23:37
Today’s footage would have me suggest ‘Pilot, maybe?’.
But I wouldn’t, for all the money in the world, get in a plane with him. Unless I’d get to fly that thing myself, that is.
Difficult one, that: He needs a job where his continuous misjudgements are harmless, both to himself and to others.
It’s been like this throughout his career actually. Red Bull had probably hoped he’d grown over it, but it would appear it only gets worse. Which is logical, as from a certain age, the brain doesn’t grow anymore, in any sense.
Jordan (@hunkulese)
29th October 2023, 23:49
He’d probably be a decent YouTuber.
Coventry Climax
30th October 2023, 21:35
Nah, too many words making it boring and too many excuses for poor performances.
Robert Henning
29th October 2023, 23:38
Ricciardo fighting a Merc. Perez giving P2 to Hamilton.
What on earth is RB waiting for? Put the man out of his suffering.
Tsunoda while rapid isn’t composed as he threw away plenty of points.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th October 2023, 2:23
Red bull obviously want perez to do well till the end of the year cause they never got 1st and 2nd, they can’t get that with ricciardo this season, no matter how well he performs, so demotivating perez by firing him isn’t wise.
Robert Henning
30th October 2023, 9:08
I don’t know what’s there to demotivate. Perez is a net negative from a cost cap pov and probably cost them 5m in his crashes alone. He is mentally broken and since Miami has had 4 podiums and is driving a car that has had a reasonable gap to every other car on the grid in 18/19 races so far.
Horner has been especially overprotective of Perez and that’s what’s going to bite him. RB went from dealing with Gasly and Albon ruthlessly to babysitting Perez. What has he actually done for the team in the last 3 years? Cost them a constructors, and plenty of crash damage this year and has scored 140 points in the last 15 races with a car that has such an advantage.
RB aren’t getting that 1-2. Announcing he will be gone will likely be better for Perez as I feel he’s driving to save his future and keeps coming short right now.
RR
29th October 2023, 23:45
The question now is: who will replace Perez..
Lawson, Ricciardo, Albon, or contracts of bigger fish with other teams could be ripped up if needs be.
Nick T.
29th October 2023, 23:50
If you’re talking 2024: We know Albon is under contract and they won’t put Lawson under that pressure. If 2025, they still won’t put Lawson in that seat as he won’t have gotten experience and frankly wasn’t faster than Yuki. His points finish in Singapore required 5 faster cars than him somehow dropping out (2 mechanical, George taking himself out, two more being taken out by Perez). Unless, Ricciardo starts driving poorly or McLaren goes backward, I can’t see another driver coming in for 2024 or 2025.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th October 2023, 2:27
I also don’t think lawson is better than tsunoda, who strikes me as a driver whose ceiling is below what’s needed for red bull (hence below perez level the first 2 years of red bull and early 2023), albon I don’t know, contracts aside, he had a chance in red bull and did terribly, mostly got worse as time went by, a bit like perez is doing now, however he did really well at williams and is more experienced now, perhaps he could make the red bull seat work if he got another chance, but I think ricciardo is the most reasonable option because he already proved that he can drive that car properly and is now doing well with alpha tauri too.
Esploratore (@esploratore1)
30th October 2023, 2:30
As for taking drivers from other teams, if they go for someone like norris (assuming he’d want to leave mclaren, where he’s doing really well) I think there would have been no point doing what they did with ricciardo so far if they didn’t intend to get him to red bull soon, norris has been clearly a strong driver for some time now.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th October 2023, 6:57
RR Only Ricciardo if anyone, & certainly not Albon in any case as he already had his chance that he blew & Red Bull isn’t known to give second chances in their main team to demoted drivers.
Jackal
29th October 2023, 23:51
Perez is such a joke ……. and his fans are an even bigger joke for booing Leclerc.
Applebook
30th October 2023, 0:06
10,000% Perez’s fault. Almost as bad as Hamilton Qatar.
Coventry Climax
30th October 2023, 21:38
You do know there’s countries that use the , as a decimal separator and the . as a thousands separator, I hope.
For those people, you’ve just said: 10%, with an accuracy of 1/1000th.
Jere (@jerejj)
30th October 2023, 6:56
Indeed, so the booing was pointless.
Coventry Climax
30th October 2023, 21:39
As was Perez. ;-)
Sviat
30th October 2023, 7:03
I agree. Typically, the sandwiched guy brakes earlier than the sandwich guys. But not in this case. Leclerc was side by side with both Red Bulls, it’s not like his nose was between them. He had no time to react.
Martin (@f1hornet)
30th October 2023, 11:44
I don’t know if it was shown in the post-race analysis, but I would be curious to see a comparison with Max’s move around the outside in 2021. In both instances it was a driver coming around the outside to overtake the front two, but obviously very different outcomes. I would like to know how one was successful and the other wasn’t, and whether that was a result of the behaviour of Max/Perez, the pinched driver in the middle, or just differences in how the three cars were approaching the corner (e.g., was Max just way further forward in 2021 than Checo in 2023).
Gimi
30th October 2023, 12:50
Let’s see, Perez starts to turn in between the 50-100 meters board, Max at the 50 meter board, Perez turned in too early and was too agressive, Max turned in later and was less agressive (pretty much a car width to the left compared to Perez), also Max was clearly ahead of both Mercedes while turning, Perez was not.
In short Perez took the racing line 50 meters too early and with a car alongside.