Sergio Perez shares picture of a massive hole in his sidepod after losing to Haas in the F1 Austrian GP
Red Bull driver Sergio Perez shared a picture of a massive hole in his sidepod that his car got on the first lap after a collision with McLaren driver Oscar Piastri during the 2024 Austrian GP on Sunday. Perez started the race from P8 behind the Aussie driver and got into a three-way tangle with Charles Leclerc and Piastri on Turn 1.
Although he came away from the tussle unscathed, he wasn't as lucky when the McLaren went on the outside of him on Turn 4 on the same lap, the Red Bull losing one of the positions it had gained.
Perez came home to finish P7 behind Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg and was unable to get past him owing to the damage to his car. He later shared the picture of the damaged sidepod on his Instagram Stories and said:
"Not much we cut do today."
He spoke about the damage in his post-race interview with the media and said (via Crash.net):
“There was a lot of damage on the sidepod. I touched a bit with Piastri at Turn 4, I don’t know if it came from there. It was unfortunate because we had a good start, but from then on, the car was just nowhere nothing I could do, I was just off balance. "
"Also making a mistake on going into the pit lane with the pit limiter, it was just a disaster of a race that started really well. But I think with just lacking so much pace out there and lagging around, there was no hope for fighting people again.” he added.
Red Bull team boss gives his take on Sergio Perez's P7 finish in Austria
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner claimed it was 'another tricky race' for Sergio Perez in Austria as his struggles from the last couple of races continued.
He told the media that the damage did prove to be a limiter in the Mexican's progress in the race, saying:
“He had quite a significant contact on the first lap. He had quite a big hole in the sidepod and then the loss of straight-line speed that gives you, it’s a bit like an air brake. So that’s why he was struggling on straight-line speed. So, difficult to judge Checo’s race due to the damage that he had.”
Sergio Perez remains in P5 in the Driver's Championship on 118 points but lost ground to Carlos Sainz, who finished on the podium. He is now being chased by Oscar Piastri and George Russell, who finished P2 and P1 respectively in Austria. The Aussie is six points behind Perez, and closely followed by the Mercedes driver on 111 points.