SINGAPORE — Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz cleared the air after their crash at last week’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix in an “awkward” 20-minute conversation while sat next to each other at the circuit’s medical centre.
The pair tangled while fighting for third place on the penultimate lap, with the front right tyre of Pérez’s car making contact with Sainz’s right rear and sending the Ferrari car across the path of the Red Bull and into the wall.
Both drivers blamed the other afterwards, but the stewards deemed it a racing incident.
After any crash, drivers go to the medical centre for precautionary tests, and Sainz said this provided the opportunity to talk it over and for both to reflect on how cruel the sport can be.
“We were awkwardly sat next to each other for 20 minutes in the medical centre, both with a heart rate monitor and controlling our vitals,” Sainz said ahead of this week’s Singapore Grand Prix.
“We were looking at each other and saying: ‘Mate, what the f— happened there? And we were like: I don’t know. But I promise I didn’t do anything bad to you, Checo. I didn’t close you off. I didn’t do anything.’
“We were having this dialogue and trying to analyse what happened. And suddenly, after these 20 minutes, we were like … this sport is so s— sometimes! How can we be here and missing out on the podium? We had the podium.
“Charles was dying on his hard tyres out there. We were probably both going to have a go at him. And we were both sitting there like: ‘How on earth did we manage to not finish in the podium?’
“It was a podium coming — and in the end we kind of joked about it, so no hard feelings with each other.”
Pérez added: “Once we took our helmets off, we realised that we screwed up, that finishing a race like that was really disappointing. We were in the medical centre, and they were both checking us up and we were all fine. We both wanted to leave as soon as possible because we were both super sad at the outcome.”
After the crash, videos circulated on social media of the immediate aftermath of the crash.
Pérez was the first to climb out of his car, and he walked over to Sainz’s car to remonstrate with him — footage showed him appearing to slap or hit the top of Sainz’s head as he did so.
Both said the incident was completely blown out of proportion.
“I was talking to him; I didn’t push his head,” Pérez said. “It looks worse on the video than it is; obviously Carlos is one of my best mates in the drivers group. So the last person I would have like to come together with is with Carlos. But we’ve turned a page, and hopefully both of us can have a tremendous race [in Singapore].
Sainz brushed off the moment too.
“I don’t remember it really. Honestly speaking, I couldn’t remember if he touched my helmet anyway,” Sainz said.
“I always take a bit of time to get out of my car because I need to do my belts, the head rest, while some drivers prefer not to, the drink tube, radio. I always take my time, and I think he used that time to agitatedly come to me to say something — by the way, I could not hear what he said!”
