Sergio Perez Monaco crash was "disastrous" for Red Bull - Christian Horner

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Perez Monaco crash was "disastrous" for Red Bull - Horner

The qualifying incident has drawn attention this week

Ewan Gale

Saturday 19 November 2022 14:01

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Red Bull team principal Christian Horner has described Sergio Perez's qualifying crash at Monaco as "disastrous" for the team.

The incident at the end of Q3, where Perez lost the rear end of his RB18 at Portier and slid into the barriers before being collected by Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, has been heavily scrutinised in the build-up to the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen refused to concede position for his team-mate at the end of the race last weekend in Brazil, citing previously internally disclosed reasons for not playing the team game.

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Rumours then circulated surrounding the circumstances of Perez's crash, with claims it was deliberate in order to secure a top-three grid position and deny Verstappen a shot at pole position.

Addressing the incident, Horner said: "Any crash, particularly in a cost cap environment, is disastrous.

"It is expensive, costly, particularly at a street circuit, so from a team's perspective, it is way, way from an ideal.

"There was a lot of frustration following that. It could have damaged the gearbox in an incident like that and then incurred a lot of damage with Carlos Sainz.

"Thankfully this year, that has probably been the biggest accident we have had from a cost basis which has a one-on-one effect on your performance to develop because you have to pick whether you are going to make spare parts or development parts.

"Thankfully, the drivers have done a great job thereafter of not hitting things but we actually have the least amount of crash damage in the year compared to any other team."

Red Bull took Brazil situation for granted

After the furore on track at Interlagos, where Perez told his team that Verstappen had 'shown who he really is', both drivers and management held clear-the-air talks.

Conceding mistakes were made by the team in the handling of the situation, Horner added: "A lot has been said about Brazil.

"There are things that we as a team could have done better. We hadn't envisaged being in that position. We shouldn't have taken it for granted.

"There are always lessons we are going to learn in this sport. It is a matter of how you apply them."