Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has urged the FIA not to investigate Sergio Perez for allegedly crashing deliberately qualifying for the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix after Max Verstappen ignited a Red Bull civil war.
Verstappen refused obey team orders and let Perez past at the end of the Brazilian Grand Prix and said it was revenge for an incident earlier in the season and there’s been a maelstrom of reports that Perez admitted to the team he’d crashed on purpose in Monaco.
“We’ve had enough PR crisis in the last couple of weeks around that team,” Wolff told the press. “I think we don’t need another one”.
Other team principals agree
There’s no love lost between Wolff and Red Bull, but he wasn’t the only team principal to think F1 needed to move on from Monaco as he faced the media alongside Ferrari boss Mattia Binotto and McLaren‘s Zak Brown.
“The Perez incident it was quite some time ago,” Brown said. “So I think we need to as a sport, if we see something that needs to be investigated, move more swiftly.
“I think Monaco was a long time ago and certainly to be talking about Monaco in Abu Dhabi, I think that train has left the station.”
One of the strangest parts of the story is the manner of Perez‘s crash. He was running third at the time at a track where pole position is key, handing Ferrari the advantage for Sunday.
Perez ended up winning the Monaco Grand Prix but that was only thanks to Ferrari‘s strategical error.
“I don’t think there is any need to review what happened in Monaco, today,” Binotto said. “More important for us now I think is really looking forward, moving forward, maybe we discuss what we should do in that type of situations but I don’t think there is a clear answer right now.”
