Sergio Perez has criticised the racing conditions towards the end of the Australian GP, which he said were “dangerous” for the drivers.
The end of the race in Melbourne saw a number of red flags come out, delaying the race finish by over an hour past the normal end time.
That meant the sun was beginning to set over Albert Park, forcing the drivers to swap to shaded visors for the final stint on track.
Speaking to the media after the race, the Red Bull driver said that the conditions were ultimately perilous for the drivers, given the loss of visibility.
“Yeah, I mean, there were a lot of incidents…there were a lot of crashes and it was definitely needed, that red flag,” Perez said.
“It was really dangerous. First of all for the warm-up. But secondly, we could not see anything, we cannot race in these conditions anymore.
“One day, there’s going to be a big shunt. Because of the sun, we cannot see anything. The last 30 laps, we are just a passenger where we don’t have any visibility.”
Salvage job
Perez had a weekend to forget in Melbourne after he struggled with issues with his car during the practice sessions and spun into the gravel during the first qualifying session, meaning he was forced to start the race from the pitlane.
The Mexican ultimately rallied to salvage a fifth place finish, but the driver said he could have had more were it not for the safety cars and the difficulty of passing around the Albert Park circuit.
“It was a big, big mess with the DRS train early on, I needed to take a lot more risk if I wanted to make some more progress, and probably I wouldn’t have finished the race or probably I could have finished a bit higher,” he said.
“But it’s a gamble and I think the Safety Car hurt us because everyone went for the hards, so there was not much of a strategy that we could do and that put us a bit out of sync and it made for a little bit more difficult race.”
