"Avoidably and very damagingly poor" - F1 pundit's verdict on Sergio Perez's 2023 F1 Monaco GP weekend

F1 pundit Scott Mitchell-Malm recently spoke about Sergio Perez's dreadful weekend in the 2023 F1 Monaco GP. The Mexican crashed in the Q1 qualifying session on Saturday, forcing him to start from the back of the grid.

Furthermore, due to the chaotic race on Sunday, the Red Bull driver was unable to finish anywhere near the points finish and ended up in 16th.

Speaking on The Race F1 podcast, Scott Mitchell-Malm explained how Sergio Perez was devastated after the crash in the qualifying session and how he apologized to the team for his mistake.

The F1 pundit said:

"Avoidably and very damagingly poor. I think you could tell that the magnitude of the qualifying crash was clearly not lost on him. I can't remember the last time we heard a frontrunner talking in those terms with the way that Perez was sort of saying like, you know, I can't believe what I've just done.

"And then obviously we had a little bit more of the slightly more usual, you know, I've let the team down, I was going to have an impossible race. You could tell he obviously knew the significance of it."

Scott Mitchell-Malm went on to explain how difficult it is to overtake in the Monaco GP, which is why the qualifying session of the race weekend is so important. Hence, Sergio Perez was simply unable to do anything despite having the strongest car on the grid.

He concluded:

"So the damage was done in qualifying; it was going to take a near miracle to achieve anything of note in the Grand Prix. Even getting into the points was always going to be a tall order. That's just how it is, and the race was playing out in a very frustrating way for him. Just when you think the weekend couldn't get any worse, it did. It didn't just go from bad to worse, I think it went from worse to absolutely terrible."

---

Sergio Perez apologized to Red Bull for crashing in the Monaco GP qualifying session

Sergio Perez was extremely dejected after crashing in the first Monaco GP qualifying session and starting the race from the back. While speaking to the media, he openly accepted his mistake and apologized to the team.

He further admitted that he cannot afford to make such mistakes and leave a race weekend without any points, especially when he is a title contender.

The Red Bull driver said (via Motorsport Total):

"We paid the price from my mistake [in qualifying]. That has been very costly and I just have to apologise to the whole team because it is unacceptable to have this kind of mistake. I have to move on, learn from it. I cannot afford another zero [points] in the championship.”

Checo is currently in second place in the drivers' championship table with 105 points, while the race winner in Monaco GP and his teammate, Max Verstappen, sit at the top of the table with 144 points.