Sergio Pérez blames a “totally wrong” message on his steering wheel for losing his podium finish to George Russell in the final stages of the Formula 1 race in France. At the end of the virtual safety car, the Mercedes driver passed the Red Bull because it did not pick up speed again in time.
For Red Bull motorsport consultant Helmut Marko, Pérez “simply slept – but strong” in this scene, as he tells “Sky”. “I don’t know if he had tequila or what yesterday,” he criticizes the Mexican.
He defends that he received incorrect information about the end of the VSC phase on his steering wheel and thus lost his position. The regulations state that the race will be released again “ten to 15 seconds” after the signal that the virtual safety car phase has ended. In France, however, just under a minute passed between them.
“I got the message that it ends after turn 9,” explains Pérez. “But it didn’t end and then I got the message that it ends after turn 12. It looks like George had different information so he could better prepare for the restart.”
Problem with the computer system
The FIA admitted after the race that there was a problem with the computer system which meant the race was not restarted.
“A second VSC end message was sent due to a hardware problem, which resulted in an automatic switch to backup systems, which were working exactly as they should in this scenario,” the association said.
“You couldn’t turn off the VSC and had to do a reset,” explains Red Bull team boss Christian Horner. “I talked to him (Pérez; editor’s note) and he said he didn’t get time in the car, so he was right on the delta. George either anticipated it and was inside the delta , or maybe the information was different in both cars.”
However, the FIA can rule out the latter: “All teams receive the same information at the same time,” says the association. “The countdown from the end of the VSC to the green light on the track scoreboards is always random.”
Red Bull wants clarification
Horner is not particularly angry with the FIA, but he would like at least an explanation: “I think we just want to understand the facts,” he says. “We just want to understand that there was some kind of glitch in the system.”
Pérez, on the other hand, was angry: “It’s a pity that the virtual safety car influenced the result. That shouldn’t have been the case, but it was the case today,” says the Mexican.
Russell himself says that he anticipated the action against Pérez: “It can go either way, but I knew I had a chance when the VSC ended,” says the Mercedes driver. “You have to time it right and take the momentum with you. He was probably a bit too fast and had to brake. And the fact that he braked and I accelerated gave me a chance.”
Collision in Mistral chicane
Shortly before, there had already been another contentious scene between Pérez and Russell. Russell attacked his opponent on the approach to the Mistral chicane, but Pérez defended himself. There was a small contact between the two and Pérez had to skip the chicane – but neither of them received a penalty.
“I was a bit disappointed that I couldn’t keep the position before when I did the maneuver,” says Russell and thinks he’s right: “The rules are clear. If your front wheels are in front of the other’s rear wheels, you have a Right on the corner. I pushed him onto the curb and he just kept going.”
Pérez himself doesn’t see anything wrong with himself: “If I hadn’t shortened the curve, we would both have been eliminated,” he criticizes. “He just tried and there was a touch. I was in front and he was out of control.”
Wolff calms Russell down on the radio
Mercedes Motorsport Director Toto Wolff, on the other hand, judges the situation at “Sky” to be “totally fifty-fifty” and even had to use the radio to calm down the complaining Russell.
“I had the feeling that he was a bit stuck in a loop where he was angry about the situation,” says Wolff. “Of course as a driver you’re in your little cockpit and you don’t see the helicopter view. I felt like he had the pace at that point and could catch him on the track. I wanted to reset him mentally.”
And Wolff seems to have succeeded, because when the chance presented itself under the VSC, Russell was wide awake and snapped. “That was just clever,” he says. “There was this confusion and he just did it.”
In the end, Russell got his fourth podium of the season, leaving Pérez in fourth.