Sergio Perez contends that the reaction to George Russell’s Singapore Grand Prix crash proves that his incidents are treated more harshly due to his nationality.
Perez’s position within Red Bull has come under pressure throughout this year amid a tough campaign that has seen him drop 177 points behind team-mate Max Verstappen.
After winning two of the opening four races, a crash in qualifying at Monaco prompted an alarming run that witnessed the Mexican fail to advance to Q3 at five straight weekends.
Most recently, Perez endured a catastrophic weekend at Suzuka, qualifying six-tenths adrift of Verstappen before barging into the side of Kevin Magnussen and retiring.
However, Perez believes his mistakes are magnified more than other drivers because of his birthplace, suggesting that Russell was criticised less for crashing out from a podium place on the final lap in Singapore.
“We saw it with Russell,” he said, Perez was quoted by Spanish outlet Marca. “He crashed from third place on the last lap, but you don’t hear anyone talking about it.
“If something like that happens at Red Bull, you immediately have three hundred media channels on your roof telling you that you have to leave.
“This kind of thing happens often in Formula 1 and that’s how it works in a team environment. Also, I have the feeling that the fact that I am Mexican also has a big influence.”
Perez has previously claimed that non-European competitors have a tougher time of progressing through the racing ranks.
The 33-year-old’s nationality was in the headlines again recently after Red Bull advisor Helmut Marko attributed his fluctuating 2023 form to his ethnicity.
“Let’s remember that he is South American, and so he is not as focused as Max Verstappen or Sebastian Vettel was,” Marko stated on ServusTV.
Marko swiftly apologised for the “offensive remark”, adding “I do not believe that we can generalise about people from any country, any race, any ethnicity” in a statement.
Perez admitted that he had also accepted a personal apology from the Austrian.
“Yeah, I had a private conversation with him. He did apologize and that to me was the main thing,” Perez disclosed in Singapore.
“Yeah, basically we move on. I have a personal relationship with him, and I think you always have that, you can always have those feelings, when you see that sort of stuff.
“Knowing the person helps a lot because I know he doesn’t mean it that way. I took his apology, because I know Helmut from the personal relationship that we have, that he doesn’t mean it that way.”
However, Marko was handed a written warning by Formula 1’s governing body, the FIA, following the insensitive comments.
Discussion about this post