Kevin Magnussen’s Monaco Grand Prix took a dramatic turn on the opening lap when he and Sergio Perez collided, sending both into the barriers and out of the race. The incident occurred as Magnussen tried to pass Perez on the uphill run after Ste. Devote but found himself with no room as they clashed wheels.
Reflecting on the crash, Magnussen admitted that his mistake was trusting Perez to leave him space. “I don’t see Checo as a dirty driver or anything,” he explained. “But I was surprised that he didn’t leave me the room. Clearly, he was just pushing me to the wall to intimidate me and have me back out. But that’s certainly not the way we should be racing.”
Magnussen watched replays of the accident and stood by his view that Perez was aware of his presence. “He can’t argue that he didn’t see me. He saw me. There’s no way around it. He did see me. So yeah, that is the reason I kept it flat—because I trusted that he would leave me the space since he’d seen me.”
The Danish driver noted that post-race analysis can sometimes change one’s perspective on such incidents, but in this case, his opinion remained unchanged. “I’ve looked at it many times,” he said. “It’s always one thing right when it happens, but your view of what happens often changes when you see it from the outside. But in this case, it didn’t change so much.”
Magnussen explained that he was certain Perez had seen him, which is why he kept pushing. “He had seen me, and I knew he had seen me,” he said. “It’s one thing if you’re not sure he’s seen you, then I perceive the risk as being bigger. If I wasn’t sure that he’d seen me, I probably would have just backed off. But it was very clear to me that he had seen me. So, I thought okay, he’s going to leave a car width. I trusted that he was going to do that—in hindsight, I shouldn’t have trusted him.”
He also mentioned that once he had brought his front wheel alongside the Red Bull, it was too late to back out safely. “You get to a point where you’re so close to the wall, and his rear wheel comes out, so you’re locked in—because if you brake then, he’s going to hit your front wheel with his rear. There is a point of no return and you’re at his mercy. Leading up to that, I had full confidence that he had seen me because as soon as I got that momentum, he went to the right to cover me. You can see his head. You know, he’s seen me—there’s no doubt. I can go and look at his onboard afterwards—and I can see that he’s checking his mirror several times. Had I not been confident that he’d seen me, I would have probably backed out.”
Magnussen’s reflections on the crash highlight the fine margins and split-second decisions that define Formula 1 racing. The incident with Perez serves as a reminder of the trust drivers must place in each other and the potential consequences when that trust is misplaced.
Source: Motorsport
