In Japan, Red Bull were accused of mocking the FIA for how easily they made Sergio Perez go unaffected with his penalty. Alex Albon, having first hand experience of it, suggests, as per the Motorsport Total, that the governing body has to give harsher penalties as drivers are not learning anything from their careless actions.
Perez went rogue in Singapore, where he cost Yuki Tsunoda his race. Then, by colliding with Albon, he made the latter lose out on a points’ finish. He got a penalty for his actions, but he remained unaffected and got the best possible result. In Japan, he got two five second penalties, which would have turned into a grid penalty in Qatar as Perez retired midway thorough the race.
However, Red Bull sent him back and avoided a drop in Perez’s start position. So, in reality Perez saw no consequences after colliding with Lewis Hamilton on lap 1 and then with Kevin Magnussen later in the race. That has raised some eyeballs, including Albon’s.
Alex Albon calls for harsher penalties
With the Williams driver being a witness and a victim to Perez’s wrath, he has come out to claim that the penalties are too weak to hurt drivers for their actions. Thus, the intensity of penalties should be increased.
“In turn 11 [at Suzuka] he did the same maneuver against me on the track. I was able to avoid it. And then he did it again to Kevin [Magnussen]. I was behind him, so I had the best view. The drivers don’t really learn anything [from the penalties] because the penalties aren’t severe enough,” said Albon.
With five second penalties becoming more observably redundant, the governing body may take some action. It’s apparent after they plan to crackdown the loophole that Red Bull used to avoid the grid drop in Qatar.
Ted Kravitz reveals how Red Bull can’t do what they did
After the race, Sky Sports presenter Ted Kravitz gave a huge update on Red Bull using the loophole to rescue Perez from a grid fall in Lusail. According to him, the FIA will close this loophole from next race onwards. If the certain infringements are not served before the car is taken down, a grid penalty will be imposed.
In short, a driver can’t join the race back to serve a penalty. They will have to face the consequences in the next round. Nevertheless, Perez gave no contribution to Red Bull on Sunday.
However, they still managed to outscore Mercedes, which they only needed to do in Japan to seal their constructors’ title, with Max Verstappen’s win alone. And now, Qatar will most probably see the Dutchman sealing the drivers’ title for himself.
