Red Bull’s Japanese celebration in Suzuka was marred by Sergio Perez’s unfortunate performance, despite the team securing its sixth Constructors’ World Championship title, the second consecutive one, and Max Verstappen’s 13th win of the season.
Sergio Perez, still second in the 2023 Formula 1 driver standings, appears to be increasingly out of sync within the dominant harmony of the Austrian team. In Japan, he arguably reached his lowest point, not only due to his retirement but also because of a string of penalties that the Milton Keynes-based #11 driver received.
Retirement and Return
To serve the second penalty, remarkably, the Austrian team put Sergio Perez’s RB19 back on the track several laps after bringing it into the garage for retirement. The intention was to serve the penalty in this already compromised race, so that they wouldn’t have to “carry it over” to the next Grand Prix in Qatar. Sergio Perez also managed the challenging feat of accumulating four penalty points from the stewards in just 19 minutes. This is the time it took to go from the notification of the first infraction (14:08, local time) – overtaking under the Safety Car as he exited the pit lane, passing Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso – to the second (14:27): the collision with the Haas of Kevin Magnussen at the hairpin.
Pilot | Points | Points  Attributed | GP | Motivation | Expiration |
Lance Stroll | 7 | 2 | USA 2022 | Accident | 23-Oct-23 |
3 | Brazil 2022 | Dangerous maneuver | 12-Nov-23 | ||
2 | Great Britain 2023 | Accident | 09-Jul-24 | ||
Sergio Perez | 7 | 2 | Singapore 2022 | Failure to respect the distance of 10 cars from the SC | 02-Oct-23 |
1 | Singapore 2023 | Accident | 17-Sep-24 | ||
2 | Japan 2023 | Accident | 24-Sep-24 | ||
2 | Japan 2023 | Overtaking in SC regime | 24-Sep-24 | ||
Pierre Gasly | 5 | 2 | Japan 2022 | Speeding with red flag | 09-Oct-23 |
2 | USA 2022 | Failure to respect the distance of 10 cars from the SC | 23-Oct-23 | ||
1 | Mexico 2022 | I took advantage of leaving the track | 30-Oct-23 | ||
George Russell | 4 | 2 | USA 2022 | Accident | 23-Oct-23 |
2 | Munich 2023 | Returned to the track unsafely | 28-May-24 | ||
Lewis Hamilton | 4 | 2 | Belgium 2023 | Accident | 30-Jul-24 |
2 | Italy 2023 | Accident | 03-Sep-24 | ||
Nico Hulkenberg | 3 | 2 | Munich 2023 | Accident | 28-May-24 |
1 | Canada 2023 | Failure to respect the minimum time established under the red flag regime | 18-Jun-24 | ||
Zhou Guanyu | 2 | 2 | Hungary 2023 | Accident | 23-Jul-24 |
Fernando Alonso | 2 | 2 | Brazil 2022 | Accident | 12-Nov-23 |
Max Verstappen | 2 | 2 | Brazil 2022 | Accident | 13-Nov-23 |
Lando Norris | 2 | 2 | Brazil 2022 | Accident | 13-Nov-23 |
Carlos Sainz | 2 | 2 | Australia 2023 | Accident | 02-Apr-24 |
Logan Sargeant | 2 | 2 | Italy 2023 | Accident | 03-Sep-24 |
Charles Leclerc | 1 | 1 | Japan 2022 | I took advantage of leaving the track | 09-Oct-23 |
Alex Albon | 1 | 1 | USA 2022 | I took advantage of leaving the track | 23-Oct-23 |
Yuki Tsunoda | 1 | 1 | Spain 2023 | Forced another driver off the track | 04-Jun-24 |
Penalty Count Rises
Both the Haas contact and the Safety Car infringement earned Sergio Perez two penalty points each in the Japanese Grand Prix.. This brings his total to seven, considering that in the Singapore race, the Mexican was “spared” by the stewards for contact with Alex Albon’s Williams, receiving only one penalty point instead of the usual two. The only consolation for the Red Bull driver is that the two points he received in 2022, also in Singapore, for not respecting the correct distance from the Safety Car, will be wiped from his record in the early days of October, before the next Grand Prix. Therefore, Sergio Perez will enter the Qatar Grand Prix with “only” five penalty points.
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