Revealed: The staggering cost of Sergio Perez’s Monaco Grand Prix crash

Helmut Marko has revealed Sergio Perez’s Monaco Grand Prix crash cost Red Bull “two to three million”, and that’s not taking any potential lost points into account.

After a wretched qualifying session where he was out-paced by Williams’ Logan Sargeant and dropped out in Q1, Perez’s Monaco Grand Prix was over almost before it began as he got caught out in a back-of-the-field crash.

Sergio Perez’s Monaco crash was ‘two to three million’ say Red Bull

Perez did not have a great start and lost a position to run P17 when Kevin Magnussen tried to sneak up his inside.

Whether it was a case of Perez didn’t leave the Haas driver room, as Magnussen claims, or Magnussen made a “very unnecessary” move as Perez claims, the two touched with the Red Bull pitched nose-first into the Armco barrier on the side of the track.

As photographers scattered, Perez bounced off that initial contact and skidded further down the track to hit the barrier side-on before crossing the track to hit on the other side.

All four corners of his Red Bull RB20 were shattered with only the driver’s survival cell left intact.

Perez fortunately climbed unaided out of his stricken Red Bull, the driver suffering nothing more than an early end to his Monaco Grand Prix.

For Red Bull, though, it all came at a huge cost.

At a time of budget caps, this year’s down to $135 million, Marko says Sunday’s accident was at least two million, if not three.

“This is costing us about two to three million and with the budget cap that is of course a big handicap,” he told Sky Deutschland.

“It was another crash that Magnussen was involved in. You should watch the replays carefully.

“Thank God it ended well, but it was a critical situation.”

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The Red Bull motorsport advisor was surprised by how quickly the stewards ruled that no further action was required.

“I was surprised, though, how quickly the stewards dealt with the matter,” he continued. “These are decisions you can hardly influence, but it was just dangerous.”

He added: “You have to put it behind you. It’s a shame.”

Team boss Christian Horner was just thankfully Perez walked away from the huge crash.

“It was a horrible looking accident,” he told the media including PlanetF1.com, “and of course, your heart is in your mouth at that point and immediate focus is on the safety of the driver.

“And thankfully, you know, cars can be fixed. But the structure and the Halo and everything did its job, so that’s the most important thing, that Checo was able to walk away from what looked like a very nasty incident unscathed.”

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