Perez has “no serious injuries” after crash

2011 Monaco Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sergio Perez, Sauber, Monaco, 2011

Sauber has confirmed Sergio Perez has no serious injuries following his crash in Monaco.

A statement issued by the team said:

“It was with great relief the Sauber F1 Team received the news that Sergio Perez has no serious injuries after his heavy accident in the closing minutes of the final part of qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. Shortly before 15:00 hrs he had crashed into the barrier after the fast tunnel section of the circuit.

“The 21-year-old Mexican was taken to the Hospital Princess Grace in Monaco from where the team received further information at 16:25 hrs: The doctors said Perez had suffered concussion and a sprained thigh, but no broken bones and, following a scan, they could find no further injuries.

“The reason for the accident will be investigated and the team will update the media as soon as it has any further information.”

The team have not given any indication whether he will be racing tomorrow.

The FIA also issued the following statement: “It has been confirmed that Sauber F1 Team driver Sergio Perez is stable, conscious and talking. He is still currently undergoing tests at Princess Grace hospital.

“According to doctors he has suffered a concussion but has not sustained any fractures. His condition is currently reported as ‘encouraging’. He will remain in hospital overnight.”

2011 Monaco Grand Prix

    Browse all 2011 Monaco Grand Prix articles

    Image © Sauber F1 Team

    Author information

    Keith Collantine
    Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

    Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

    27 comments on “Perez has “no serious injuries” after crash”

    1. The best news we could have hoped for.

      1. He almost surely won’t race tomorrow if he’ll remain at the hospital overnight, but he’ll be back for the following event hopefully. Go Sergio!

        1. yeah, I think thats the smartest move to be taken. His body just survoved something that its not designed to go through, let him rest. Its just a race after all.

          1. Such a shame for him because he has looked quick all weekend.

    2. Jorge Garcia
      28th May 2011, 16:20

      Que buenas noticias para Checo y el equipo. Esperemos que no pase un nuevo accidente en esa zona a otro piloto.

    3. Good news hope he makes a speedy recovery i doubt he will be racing tomorrow though. Hope this doesn’t spoil the promising start he has made to his F1 career

      1. +1 agree completely

    4. The Last Pope
      28th May 2011, 16:24

      Concussion almost certainly means he doen’t race, But still this is very good news. Get well soon Sergio!

    5. Very good news. Unlikely to race though.

      1. Yeah, even if he’s alright and fit to race, I doubt his car will be, looked absolutely wrecked. Glad to see he’s alright though, that’s the most important thing.

    6. Excellent news! I think he was very fortunate.

    7. good to know hes okay – Can sauber get in someone else to race instead of sergio? Who is the reserve driver?

      1. No they can’t.

      2. Rod Salazar
        30th May 2011, 7:23

        The reserve driver is another Mexican guy, Esteban Gutierrez; But they cannot call him to action, because he didn’t have any activity on Thursday free practice, ’cause he was racing in GP2

    8. Really great news! Would be awesome if he could race tomorrow.

    9. An Onboard shot of Rosberg’s FP3 Crash : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5HAHueM6PE

      1. Thanks for the link. Same spot where Perez hit the barrier, let’s hope there is any other accident there. Seems like it is indeed a problem of dirty track due to the residual pellets of the tires, if that’s the case I think this is the last race we are gonna see those super soft compounds.

        1. there isn’t any*

    10. just look how smart he reacts(Perez).after the first crash in the barries he tries to turn his car to hit the the other barrier by the side of his car and just before he hits he took his hands from the steering and put them on his body.excellent reaction .the same tried rosberg but as his car was steering so he hit also by the side suddenly the car continued straight.He was lucky no to hit the second barrier and avoided if he hit this barrier he would have been hurt for sure.Just an advice to all of us, common people when we are going to hit something is better to take our hands from the steering just before the crash and always use the belts for every person in the car.So glad that anyone get hurt.

    11. Surely they could put a barrier across that escape road so that an accident like Perez’s couldn’t happen and that instead the car would carry on down the track.

      Yes it might mean that there is more of a disruption to the race, but surely that’s a small price to pay if it reduces the chance of a horrible accident.

    12. I think Rosberg may well have inadvertantly saved Perez, they removed the yellow rumble strips that launched Nico and if you look at where they were there’s a good chance Perez could have cleared the tecmo, if not rolled into it.

      1. Gridlock, you are absolutely right. Thank goodness. A remarkably timely track safety improvement to remove those rumble strips. He had already wiped out the right hand side of the car in the first impact, so if the rumble strips had still been there, it would have been very likely for the car to have rolled into or over the barrier. The marshalls behind it had sensibly ducked down behind it, and the cameraman had a camera to protect him to an extent, but it still could have been really disastrous if he had cleared it.

        I think next year they simply must close off the escape road and replace it with a long, shallowly angled barrier for cars to slide along and back onto the track. Having a car come to a complete halt at the end of the narrow barrier at 90 degrees to the fastest point on the track is unacceptable.

        As for the reason for him being off line exiting the tunnel, I guess he must have been making adjustments on the steering wheel knobs and buttons.

        Perez has been a star this year. I dearly hope he will actually be OK to return. It’s a hard impact, coming in sideways like that. It reminded me of Ralph Firman’s crash in Hungary that damaged his inner ear.

        Good that the wheel tethers’ strength has been doubled this year, but it still wasn’t enough in even the first impact. How about another doubling for next season?

        1. If you watch it again, the wheel stayed attached to the car, but the tyre came off of the wheel.

          I don’t see that there is any way to prevent that happening.

          1. Yea…that wheel is wobbling so much it was impossible for it to be attached to the wheel rim.

          2. Sorry, didn’t spot that. You are quite right, there is very little that can be done to fix the tyre to the wheel. Though just as an idea, a road car ‘tweel’ was once made, which made the tyre and wheel one and the same. Didn’t work that well though…

    13. Good news,I know off tropic but he ran wide coming out of the tunnel which had dust on tyre & I think may have made his car unstable under breaking which is always a case at that particular point. I do think that they need to resurface that place come time.

    14. Brilliant news. I’m so in awe of Formula 1 safety at the moment!

    Comments are closed.