Sergio Perez, like almost everyone at Red Bull, will be longing to forget what happened at the 2023 Singapore GP. In addition to their qualifying disaster, Perez’s weekend got even worse when he collided with Yuki Tsunoda and Alex Albon, effectively spoiling both their races. Following his altercation with the latter, Williams’ team principal James Vowles spoke to Motorsport about how Perez’s antics robbed the team of valuable points at the Marina Bay Circuit.
“Sergio Perez doesn’t understand why Lewis Hamilton escaped a penalty for overtaking him off the track during the Singapore Grand Prix”
We don’t understand why Sergio Perez escaped a penalty after this either but 🤷🏽♀️ pic.twitter.com/XxR8gWlJ1t
— deni (@fiagirly) September 18, 2023
Williams’ season has been thoroughly underwhelming so far. Their only ray of light has been Albon and his brilliant performances. The team has 21 points at the moment, and shockingly, all 21 points belong to Albon, with rookie teammate Logan Sargeant misfiring on all cylinders at the moment.
Albon was running in the points in the closing stages of the race in Singapore, and Williams was looking forward to getting a decent haul before shifting their focus to Japan. However, out of nowhere, Perez went for an audacious move, that seemed impossible to pull off. Unfortunately, Albon’s car made contact with Perez’s RB19 and his race was spoiled as he finished outside the points.
James Vowles looks back on frustration for Alex Albon
Williams, as they have been for a long time now, are backmarkers. As a result, every point is valuable for them, because they don’t know when they can fight for them again. Singapore’s Marina Bay Street Circuit was a supposed weak track for Williams and the FW44. However, Albon performed spectacularly to find himself running in the points. Then, tragedy struck for them.
“A significant number of points have been taken away from us,” said Vowles as quoted by Motorsport. “It is frustrating that in a championship where every point is fought for. And you are ahead of your direct competitors, that it is taken away from you like that. That hurts.”
Perez’s reckless driving on the track did not sit well with most people in the F1 community. Immediately after the race, the stewards summoned him. However, their verdict did not please the fans at all.
Penalty Sergio Perez got wasn’t enough
After looking at the onboard footage of Perez’s shunt with Albon, it was clear that the Mexican driver would get a penalty post-race. However, the penalty handed out was of just five seconds. This ended up not affecting the Red Bull driver whatsoever.
🚨 | Sergio Perez receives a 5-second penalty for his incident with Alex Albon.
He goes from P8 to P8.
— formularacers (@formularacers_) September 17, 2023
Perez finished the race in P8 and was already five seconds ahead of the driver in P9. Hence, the penalty ended up not affecting him, and Williams left the track as the bigger loser, with both their cars out of the points.
The next round of the 2023 F1 season will see the teams travel to Suzuka for the Japanese GP. Because of its high speed layout, Red Bull are expected to compete at the front again, and Williams too, could try and utilize their blistering straight-line speed.
