The Monaco Grand Prix weekend went from bad to worse for Haas. After a good qualifying both drivers were disqualified for a technical infringement of the DRS-system, putting them both to the back of the grid. And from there the race only lasted one turn, as Kevin Magnussen tried to pass Sergio Pérez up Beau Rivage, a move the Mexican clearly not expected or noticed, as the gap close quickly and the Haas and Red Bull came together, resulting in a total write-off for the RB20.
Teammate Nico Hülkenberg tried to avoid the incident but was clipped by the spinning Red Bull, resulting in a double DNF for the American outfit.
“I think unnecessary from both really, it could have been avoided easily,” the German said. “Obviously, for me, who wasn’t directly involved, it’s the shittiest of all. I missed it probably by two tenths.
“If I would have been two times further up the road, he would have missed me. I’m gutted and disappointed because everyone in the team, we all invest a lot of energy and time and it’s just frustrating.”
Coming from behind the two, Hülkenberg had the best view of the situation, primarily deeming the situation as ‘stupid’, he told Sky Germany.
“It was obviously stupid between Kevin and Checo. I don’t know if Checo saw Kevin. Checo could have left space. At the same time, I think Kevin was also very optimistic about staying on there, where the track gets narrower and there are little kinks up to Turn 3.
“Nobody has won the Monaco Grand Prix on lap one,” he added. “So, you have to take calculated risk and risks that make sense… It’s always that risk-reward question that you have to [answer] yourself.”
His teammate Magnussen didn’t feel he did anything wrong in the incident, explaining that Pérez “clearly wasn’t leaving space that I thought he would.”
“I had a good part of my front end, my whole front wheel was ahead of his rear wheel,” he added. “So, I did expect him to be leaving room for one car on his right, especially since he didn’t have anyone on his inside. On his left, there was a completely clear track. So he just squeezed me into the wall.”
“It’s not good to see both cars in one crash. It sucks. It’s a shitty, shitty situation.”
The Dane also added that he “would have been very surprised” if he was penalised for what he considered a racing incident. A penalty that very well might have meant a race ban for him.
The third party in incident, Sergio Pérez, was surprised of the opposite.
“If you see my onboard, at no point you see Kevin’s car – not even close to me, alongside me, and you could see that the wall is just getting closer and closer,” he started his argument.
“To keep it flat out, there was only one way out of it, and it was either contact with my car or with the barrier.
“There was just simply no room for both cars and at some point, he had to realise that – I mean, I’ve been in that occasion – and many times when you are the car behind you just have to realise that it’s time to back off, before things get closer to you.”
The wreck completely demolished his RB20, and caused a lengthy red flag for barrier repairs, but didn’t even result in an investigation.
“I’m very surprised [the incident was not investigated] because [of] the amount of damage and how dangerous the damage was. I’m really surprised.”
The crash meant the end of a terrible weekend for Pérez, in which Red Bull struggled and he himself failed to get out of Q1.
“I think he clearly shouldn’t be there in the first place,” the Mexican continued. “Because there is just one way to get out of that. It will be just to hit the wall, he either hit the wall or hit my car. The right side of my car.
“So how does he want me to leave him room if he’s not even alongside? There’s a point where you see the wall is coming to you and you just have to back off. It has happened to me many times and there’s a point where you just have to back off.
“I’m really surprised. I get the lap one ‘let them race’, but I think this was more dangerous driving just to keep it flat out knowing that they were going to come contact me. At some point I think that was some dangerous driving.
Pérez accuses the one-time podium finisher of lacking a sense of self-preservation.
“I don’t think he really thinks about the outcome,” he says. “You sometimes find yourself in a position and you have to take a very quick decision to say, ‘okay, there’s only one way of it and it’s going to be contact so I’d better back out’ – but he will go for the contact.”
