Struggling Sergio Perez took purpose at Liam Lawson, extensively seen as a possible rival for his Crimson Bull System One seat, after the pair clashed at on Sunday.
Lawson appeared to make an offensive hand gesture in direction of Perez as he handed the Crimson Bull driver on the start-finish straight, only a handful of laps after the pair clashed on monitor.
Perez, who hoped to bounce again at residence from a season he has labelled “horrible”, confirmed his frustration after combating on monitor with RB’s Lawson and damaging his automotive.
The Mexican had climbed to thirteenth from his 18th grid place earlier than being handed a five-second penalty for a false begin and dropping again down.
Perez was important about Lawson’s perspective because the New Zealander had related incidents with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso finally week’s US Grand Prix and Williams’ Franco Colapinto later within the Mexican race.
Credit score: F1TV
“I had an important begin, regardless of the penalty for lining up mistaken, we had the whole lot to go ahead, sadly there was the incident with Lawson and that damage us loads,” Perez mentioned.
“He was exterior the monitor and simply got here straight like there was no automotive, I feel he may have averted the incident. Fortunately I noticed him and I opened room. In any other case it might have been a large crash.
“There was no want. We broken each of our races. He did the identical with Fernando, with Franco ultimately and there aren’t any penalties, so none of his fault as effectively.
“I feel the way in which he has come to System One, I don’t assume he has the fitting perspective for it. He must be a bit extra humble.”
Lawson, 22, has changed dropped Australian Daniel Ricciardo for the rest of the season at RB, Crimson Bull’s sister workforce, and drew reward from final week when he raced from nineteenth to ninth.
Perez’s poor performances at Crimson Bull have left open the chance triple champion Max Verstappen may have a brand new team-mate subsequent season, with Lawson seen because the main contender.
Perez recognised Lawson was hungry, passionate and really gifted however was additionally important of the teenager.
“Lawson has had too many incidents…There might be a degree the place it may well price him an excessive amount of,” he mentioned. “I simply assume that he has to have the fitting perspective to say, look, in all probability I’m overdoing it slightly bit.”
Perez could not see out season at Crimson Bull
In the meantime, Crimson Bull workforce boss Christian Horner refused to substantiate Perez would see out the season after one other depressing afternoon at his residence race on Sunday.
Perez completed final on the monitor after accumulating a penalty for a false begin after which being concerned in a number of clashes with different drivers that left his automotive bashed and holed.
On the identical time, Crimson Bull misplaced second place within the constructors’ standings to Ferrari regardless of Max Verstappen main the drivers’ championship.
Requested instantly if Perez – whose kind has crashed since Might – was going to complete the season with Crimson Bull, Horner provided no phrases of consolation for a driver who technically has a contract for 2025.
As a substitute, it gave the impression of Perez could have raced for the final time in entrance of his residence crowd in F1.
“You already know, there comes a time limit that tough selections need to be made,” mentioned Horner. “We’re now third within the constructors’ championship.
“Our dedication is to try to get again right into a successful place nevertheless it’s going to be a tall order over these subsequent 4 races.”
Horner mentioned Perez could be in Brazil subsequent weekend for the ultimate race of an American triple header, however there was loads of hypothesis on the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez {that a} change might be made for the final three rounds.
Horner mentioned Perez’s weekend had been “horrible” with nothing going proper for him.
“He is aware of System One is a results-based enterprise and inevitably while you’re not delivering then the highlight is firmly on you.”
Horner repeated the assertion when requested if Perez’s seat was in danger, referring to the Mexican as “under-performing” and saying scrutiny was fixed.
“As a workforce we’d like each automobiles scoring factors and that’s the character of System One,” he added.
“We’re working with him as arduous as we are able to to try to help him. I feel we’ve accomplished the whole lot that we are able to to help Checo and we’ll proceed to take action in Brazil subsequent weekend.
“However there comes a time limit you could solely accomplish that a lot.”
