Sergio Perez has accepted he was mistaken to claim Racing Point are “hiding” aspects of their car’s development from him, according to the team’s technical director Andrew Green.
On Thursday Perez said some team members at Racing Point, which he will leave at the end of the season, were no longer sharing significant details about their engineering programme with him. He said this could compromise the team’s efforts to take third place in the constructors’ championship.However Green said Perez had only been excluded from briefings related to their 2021 car, as he will not drive it.
“Those conversations are for next year’s car, basically,” said Green. “We’re not excluding him from anything we’re doing this year.
“It’s in our interest to have him as fast as we can get him for the rest of the season. We’re in a fight for the championship, it does us no good at all to start to treat him any differently, and we haven’t done.”
Green said Perez’s comments, which were made in Thursday’s FIA press conference, came as a surprise to the team.
“We were surprised that instead of talking to us about any issues he had, the first we read about it is in the press. So that was a bit strange.
“But then when we spoke to him about it and asked him about what was it he thought we were holding back he realised that actually he was mistaken and we weren’t holding anything back. We were open with him now as we were last year, before the announcement.
“One thing that we won’t be talking about is what we’re doing for next year car. But that shouldn’t prevent us from doing the job that we do now for this year.”
In a social media post yesterday Perez said he had “spoken to the team and they accept my explanation”.
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OOliver
26th September 2020, 11:52
Perez also surprised he was sacked after claim that he had a contract.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th September 2020, 11:58
@OOliver That’s because he indeed had a valid contract until the end of 2022
OOliver
26th September 2020, 14:53
You don’t get the irony.
Jere (@jerejj)
26th September 2020, 11:59
Well, he already knows next year’s car as it’s the same as the current one, but with some alterations to the floor.
H67
26th September 2020, 16:34
Sounds like most companies.
Rodber
26th September 2020, 17:18
Come on. Shirts off and let’s settle this like men.
faulty (@faulty)
26th September 2020, 19:05
Isn’t Larry Stroll like six-foot seven? Perez stands no chance there.
Stephen Crowsen (@drycrust)
26th September 2020, 20:34
Surely Sergio’s priority at the moment is to get a 2021 contract, so how is running around claiming he’s being overlooked, excluded from meetings, slighted, etc by Racing Point (and obviously they will be doing that for certain things) going to help him get a new contract? I don’t think it will. No one doubts that it hurts for him to have his contract prematurely terminated (although it sounded like there was a clause in his contract that allowed them to do that), and being excluded from discussions about the 2021 car (partly for his benefit) will hurt as well, but telling everyone perceived and real slights within the team won’t help you get a new contract. The other team principals have a good idea what’s going on, and they’re the ones who he’d have to talk to if he wanted to get a contract. Saying less might be more valuable than saying more.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
27th September 2020, 0:06
Yes, because contracts are on merits? Vettel over perez? Yet another mistake this qualifying, and it’s not like he didn’t make any or perform terribly the past weekends either!
Colly
27th September 2020, 8:47
I think the whole world except Sergio knew that Vettel was being offered his seat.
He should keep his head down and work to get another drive, not cause mischief.
Future employers don’t want that.
Not George
27th September 2020, 9:40
Yeah, reminds me of a former colleague whining constantly about his contract: the management in that situation’s aim was to do what ever it takes to get him to shut the “you-know-what” up!
I’m sick of reading about poor little lamb Perez: it’s all so unfair that he’s been in F1 for years, blew his chance with a top team, & his contract was concluded using an exit clause. Woe is Perez; it’s not like there’s a pandemic or anything important going on is there?
We’ve not been told the RP side of the story: was the exit clause a freebie? I doubt it.