Carlos Sainz broke an “uncomfortable” silence at the Medical Center to talk to Sergio Perez about the crash at the Formula 1 race in Baku
Carlos Sainz revealed how he spent 20 minutes in the medical center with Sergio Perez shortly after the accident on the penultimate lap of the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The two had been battling for a place on the podium in Baku when they collided at Turn 2, sending both drivers into the wall.
Sainz had been trying to overtake his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who was struggling with his rear tires, while Perez was driving a strong race after a series of mediocre performances in his Red Bull. The race stewards eventually ruled the incident to be a racing accident.
Sainz annoyed: Should have been on the podium together
Sainz explains: “We sat awkwardly next to each other in the medical center for 20 minutes, both with a heart rate monitor and our vitals being checked. We looked at each other and said, ‘Dude, what the hell happened there?’ And I said, ‘I don’t know. But I promise I didn’t do anything bad to you, Checo. I didn’t push you. I didn’t do anything.’“
”We had that dialogue and tried to analyze what happened. And suddenly, after those 20 minutes, we said to each other: ‘This sport sometimes sucks. How can we be here and miss the podium?’ We had the podium within reach.“
”Charles died out there on his hard tires. We both probably wanted to go at him. And we both sat there and thought, ‘How on earth did we manage not to be on the podium?’ Because there was a podium in sight. And in the end we joked about it, so we’re not angry with each other.”
Perez echoes the Spaniard’s words. “After we took off our helmets, we realized that we had both messed up and that it was really disappointing to end a race like that,” he says. ‘We were at the medical center and they checked us out, we were both fine and we both wanted to leave as soon as possible because we were both very, very sad about the result.
’It’s behind us, and I really hope that we both have a strong finish to the season. I think it was just the wrong steps at the wrong time, and I think it’s irrelevant right now who’s to blame.“
”I think that in the end we both ended up with zero points, which hurt our teams a lot and we talked about it, and we thought that with the damage we suffered, especially Charles, who had to struggle so much, we should have finished on the podium in the end, but we didn’t. But that’s irrelevant now, let’s turn the tide.”
A camera shot of Perez showed the Mexican approaching Sainz after getting out of his battered Red Bull and apparently touching the Ferrari driver’s helmet. Perez was heavily criticized on social media as the clip made the rounds, but Sainz says he has no memory of the incident.
“I was talking to Carlos when he looked down and I was talking to him, I didn’t bump his head,” Perez said. “It looks worse on the video than it is. Carlos is one of my best buddies in the riding group, so the last person I would want to come together with.“
”Social media can be very toxic in this regard at times, so it’s best to stay away from it, because more often than not people don’t know the full truth, and the truth is that we were both extremely disappointed.”