F1 News
Irritated Szafnauer: "He has to drive like a saint"
- GPblog.com
Sergio Perez hadn't recorded any reprimands until the Portuguese Grand Prix, but he now has two to his name. He was reprimanded by the stewards for obstructing Pierre Gasly in qualifying and for a blocking incident during the race, again with Gasly. The result is that Perez really has to take it easy now, otherwise he will get a grid penalty of ten places.
Two reprimands
"So Sergio, his whole career, has never been reprimanded, ever," says team boss Otmar Szafnauer to Formula1.com. "He’s got two this weekend. One of which was in qualifying, where he made a mistake in one of the sectors, didn’t realise that Gasly was on a fast lap behind him, and got out of the way but not quickly enough; reprimanded."
"Well, Gasly got into Q3, it didn’t cause him any harm; reprimanded. You saw the other incident [in the race]; reprimanded," Szafnauer describes the situations. That's a problem, because Perez will now have to hold back during the races. This is because there is a chance that he will get another reprimand and then the 'damage' will be even greater.
Driving like a saint
"Now for the rest of the season he’s got to drive like a saint. He’s not going to be able to fight hard because there’s a risk of a reprimand and then you get a 10 (place) grid penalty! So, I think it’s quite harsh. You may not think that reprimand was harsh, but it is." Also, the team boss in particular doesn't understand the reprimand for the action in the race because everything was done according to the rules.
However, the stewards don't think so and that's why Perez now has to watch what he's doing.