MOST POINTS FINISHED IN ROOKIE YEAR | FORMULA 1

 

MOST PENALIZED DRIVERS SUNCE 2014 | TOP TEN

 

SERGIO PEREZ LEFT RED-FACED BY TWO SACKED F1 DRIVERS AFTER :RAKING UP £3.7M BILL'

Sergio Perez's Formula One season hasn't gone anywhere near as well as his Red Bull partner Max Verstappen's, but the Mexican driver does top another table.

Sergio Perez tops all other F1 drivers when it comes to the cost of damages caused (Image: Getty)

Red Bull’s Sergio Perez is credited with causing the most expensive crash damages in this Formula One season – even ahead of two axed drivers. Despite starting the term strongly alongside peer Max Verstappen, the Mexican star has suffered a monumental drop-off as rival teams upped their game. This has left him eighth on the Drivers’ Championship table and without a podium since April.

To accompany this dip, Perez has also racked up a significant bill for the damages he’s caused his team, with an unofficial table dubbed the ‘Destructors’ Championship’ placing the 34-year-old highest, above Logan Sergeant, the table’s topper in 2023, and Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu- both of whom will be out of a seat come next year.

In fact, Sargeant has already been replaced at Williams by Franco Colapinto, meaning that the dismal Perez’s nearly £4million bill outweighs that of an already axed driver, increasing the mounting pressure on the Austrian team to find a replacement.

Though not an official source, the table reveals that Perez caused costly damages in China, Imola, Monaco, Canada, Austria, Hungary, Azerbaijan and Mexico. The estimated £3.7m in damages Perez accumulated, however, was largely due to his huge entanglement in Monaco, involving Haas drivers Kevin Magnussen and Niko Hulkenberg.

In the first lap, with cars bunching close, Magnussen caught Perez’s rear left and sent him spinning into the barriers. Both Magnussen and his peer Hulkenberg sustained significant damage, too, and their races ended prematurely. The bill assigned to Perez supposedly topped £2m.

"It's another accident in which Magnussen was involved. You should watch the replays carefully. Thank God it turned out well, but it was a very critical situation,” Red Bull adviser Helmut Marko told Sky Germany back in May when asked about the incident - which caused a 40-minute delay to proceedings.

"I was surprised how quickly they put this incident behind them. These are decisions that you can hardly influence. On the one hand, there is the danger and on the other hand, the damage is two to three million [euros]. With the budget regulations, that is a big handicap for us."

Another of Perez’s pricey collisions came in Azerbaijan, when, on the penultimate lap, the Mexican grappled with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, ending both of their races.

“It is a pathetic touch, an absolutely pathetic touch, with serious ramifications!” former F1 driver Mark Webber told Channel 4 when covering Perez and Sainz’s crash.

“Sergio is trying to get across into the tow. At this speed, it’s fine margins. Sergio’s repair bill this year is impressive. He’s got more of the Ferrari in view, when you’re [looking in] the mirror, you’re not quite sure where he should be. Sergio should have given him more room to get down that straight.

Next up on the calendar is the Las Vegas GP, where Perez will look to limit any further damages and embarrassment as his peer Verstappen looks to stamp down a decisive claim on what would be his fourth Drivers’ Championship title.

- BEN CRAWFORD

BREAKING: KEVIN MAGNUSSEN RECEIVES A ONE-RACE BAN

 

Magnussen will miss the Azerbaijan GP as the FIA confirm the penalty points received during his clash with Pierre Gasly in today's race sees him reach the 12 penalty point limit in a 12 month period.

More here: https://f1.com/Magnussen-race-ban

MAGNUSSEN TO LEAVE HAAS

 

KEVIN MAGNUSSEN NEARS RACE BAN AFTER MIAMI COLLISION

 MIAMI -- Kevin Magnussen could be one penalty away from a race ban following his collision with Williams driver Logan Sargeant.

Magnussen clumsily tangled with Sargeant midway through the Miami Grand Prix, an incident that triggered the race-altering safety car that helped propel Lando Norris to a maiden F1 win.

The race stewards were clear in who they believed was to blame, giving Magnussen a 10-second penalty during the race and handing him two penalty points.

A driver gets a one-race ban if he accumulates 12 points in a rolling 12-month period. Magnussen's latest transgression brings him up to 10.

Magnussen has accumulated five penalty points alone this week, with three handed out after he repeatedly incurred time penalties to keep Haas teammate Nico Hülkenberg ahead of rival cars during Saturday's sprint race.

The Danish driver will be on thin ice for the rest of the year, as he will not have any existing points expire until early April of next year.

On Sunday's incident, the stewards' verdict read: "It was clear that Car 20 did not have its front axle in that position such that it was entitled to room in that corner. Further, if this is looked at purely as an overtaking of the inside of Turn 3, Car 20 would also not have had the right to the corner, by the standards for an inside overtake.

"Even if this was viewed as a sequence of corners or a chicane, the decision remains the same. Per the guidelines, priority will be given to the first corner and if you do not have the right to be given room, then you do not get the benefit for the next corner.

"Car 20 was therefore wholly to blame for the collision that occurred."

- Nate Saunders, General Editor, F1

Reuters 

Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen will continue with Haas next year in an unchanged lineup, the U.S.-owned Formula One team said on Thursday.

The German and his Danish team mate have both scored points this season, with Hulkenberg's seventh place in Australia in April their best result of the campaign, and their retention came as no surprise.

Between them they have started 346 grands prix.

Haas are eighth of 10 teams in the constructors' championship going into this weekend's Dutch Grand Prix

KEVIN MAGNUSSEN FROM THE ROLEX 24HRS AT DAYTONA

24H OF DAYTONA 2021 | KEVIN MAGNUSSEN VS ALEXANDER ROSSI