Sergio Perez slammed the Australian F1 Grand Prix’s restart and warned of a “big shunt” that could happen due to poor visibility.
The Australian GP was quite chaotic, with several red flags throughout the race, including one right after a restart. However, Sergio Perez benefited from these incidents as he was able to move up to P5 despite starting from the pit lane after his qualifying incident.
Despite having an advantage, he criticized the restart of the race as he believes there was very little visibility due to the sunset in Melbourne. The rays hit Albert Park directly and the eyes of the drivers made it difficult for them to see. He told the media
“It was really dangerous. Firstly, the warm-up, but secondly, we didn’t see anything [because of the sun]. We can no longer race under these conditions. One day there will be a big fork. We can’t see anything.”
The Australian Grand Prix weekend was full of such incidents and crashes during sessions. However, it’s unlikely that any of them are due to the issue highlighted by Sergio Perez, which interestingly could be a serious issue.
Instead, numerous riders lost control during the practice sessions and ended up in the gravel or with a broken part, and the race was just as chaotic.
Sergio Perez reveals there was no visibility during the restart of the race as he avoided Pierre Gasly
Pierre Gasly had a tough race restart at the very end of the race. The final two laps were set to be run after Kevin Magnussen’s crash resulted in the race being red flagged. After the restart, the Frenchman collided with his teammate and was thrown out of the race.
Sergio Perez revealed he had to avoid him when he crashed, blindly at that as there was no visibility at Turn 1:
“In the last three laps we were just passengers where we have no visibility. I had to dodge Gasly [at the final standing start]and there was no visibility into Turn 1.”
Sergio Perez is still P2 in his championship fight. He made a mistake as Max Verstappen is now 15 points ahead of him at the top of the Championship. However, this is still a very small margin and only three rounds of the season have been held so far.
