Much has been made of Kevin Magnussen’s haul of penalty points. The Haas driver has now accumulated 10, which puts him just two away from triggering a race ban.
But he isn’t the only driver who has to be wary. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez is up to eight, and his tally won’t be coming down until September, when it’s set to fall to seven.
Elsewhere, two-time world champion Fernando Alonso ranks fifth for total penalty points, halfway to a ban. While Alonso isn’t in immediate danger, that figure will be hanging over him until at least March 2025.
Esteban Ocon was the only driver who received points on his licence in Monaco. Ocon was one of six with a clean record until he made his heavily-publicised lunge down the inside of Alpine teammate Pierre Gasly at Portier on the first lap.
Their ensuing contact took him out of the race, and to make matters worse he’s received a five-place grid penalty for the next race in Canada. Their clash came just moments before race control pressed the red-flag button for an incident involving Perez and the two Haas drivers.
The dramatic crash on the climb up Beau Rivage ended the race for all three cars and left Perez with up to £2.6m worth of damage. But because it was lap one, the stewards took a more lenient approach and elected not to hand out any punishments, much to the relief of Magnussen and Perez.
Peter Windsor says drivers should be careful when racing Sergio Perez
Perez is one of the most experienced drivers in F1 with 265 race starts under his belt. On the current grid, only all-time record-holder Alonso (385) and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton (340) have competed in more Grands Prix.
In fact, the 34-year-old ranks ninth on the all-time list and will soon pass Felipe Massa (269) for eighth. He’s also in the top 25 on the podium leaderboard with 39, but despite this success, F1 expert Peter Windsor regards him as a ‘loose cannon’.
Windsor reckons that Nico Hulkenberg should have backed out of the three-car battle at the start given the identity of his opponents. In situations like this, he says Perez’s reputation ought to precede him.
Speaking on the Cameron F1 channel, he said: “From Nico Hulkenberg’s perspective, if you’re really thinking sharply, you’re thinking, ‘this isn’t Daniel Ricciardo in the middle, this is a bit of a loose cannon’.
“The best thing here is to probably just to back away slightly just to make sure that if Perez does move to the right, he’s got a bit of room to go back.”
The one thing that could deny Perez a 2025 Red Bull seat
Perez started the season strongly with three runner-up finishes and four podiums in the first five races. But he’s suffered a drop-off in form since.
The last two events have been particularly poor as he finished eighth at Imola after a Q2 exit and then suffered an even earlier elimination on Saturday at Monaco. He’s slipped down to fifth in the drivers’ championship, but he’s still set to earn a new contract from Red Bull.
All that can stop Perez from earning the extension he craves is a ‘drastic drop’ in the next few races. And he’ll hope he can push the reset button after his Monaco retirement.
Red Bull have been accused of keeping a ‘sub-par’ driver solely for the benefit of Max Verstappen, who’s rarely had to worry about internal competition. If that is the case, then they could regret it given the tight margins in this year’s constructors’ championship.
Ferrari have closed to within 24 points of the Milton Keynes outfit after Charles Leclerc’s win in Monaco. The progress they’ve made, in conjunction with McLaren, has significantly reduced Red Bull’s margin for error.
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