For those watching on television, Sergio Perez’s Canadian Grand Prix was clearly over once he backed his Red Bull into the turn six barrier on the 51st lap.
The rear wing of his RB20 was smashed and what remained of it was hanging off the back of his car as he pulled away. However the driver appeared to believe his damage was confined to his suspension, and perhaps even hoped he’d got away with nothing more than a puncture and might be able to continue in the race after a pit stop.
Red Bull could see the full picture however, which meant their response was highly significant when Perez asked whether he should try to return to the pits. “Bring it back, bring it back,” said his race engineer Hugh Bird.
The FIA clamped down years ago on teams allowing their drivers to circulate with parts hanging off their cars. There was a spate of cases in 2022 involving parts considerably smaller than a rear wing, such as Fernando Alonso’s wing mirrors in Austin and Kevin Magnussen’s front wing end plates at several venues.
In Perez’s case, his damaged car clearly posed a hazard to other drivers as parts were falling off it. What’s more, Red Bull were obviously aware of this as they warned his race-leading team mate Max Verstappen to beware of debris at turn 10, Gianpiero Lambiase telling him: “a bit of debris around the track at turn 10, Max.”
He glossed over the detail that the debris was from the other RB20. As Perez headed towards the final corner, where cars at full speed hit well over 300kph, he was warned Verstappen was only six seconds behind him. Had his rear wing chosen that moment to break free the consequences for his team mate or his pursuers could have been serious.
Drivers in damaged cars are routinely told by their teams to park up as they are well aware failing to do so will result in a penalty for driving in an “unsafe condition”. Drivers with obviously loose wheels are invariably told to stop before leaving the pits.
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One of the few exceptions to this occured at Imola, where Alexander Albon was cleared of driving his car in an unsafe conditions after his pit stop. In his case the stewards noted there had been no sign anything had gone wrong during his pit stop and the stewards agreed with Albon’s view that the wheel appeared to still be “captured by the wheel nut”, and therefore not at risk of coming off. Red Bull’s situation was different.
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