"Zero sportsmanship" - Former Toro Rosso driver slams Red Bull and Sergio Perez for Lewis Hamilton tactics

Former Red Bull Junior Team driver Sébastien Bourdais has slammed Sergio Perez and the Red Bull F1 team for Abu Dhabi tactics against Lewis Hamilton, claiming Perez’s moves were “dirty”.

In reply to a tweet posted by F1 journalist Will Buxton praising Perez’s defensive driving, Bourdais tweeted the following:

“I thought you loved racing, that was BS. I can't begin to understand how Perez can be happy with himself and how people applaud him for what he did. Purposely slowing down and using every dirty trick to impede Hamilton. Zero sportsmanship, from the whole team really. They completely sacrificed Perez's race to put him in that position. Losing purposely seconds per lap to impede, look again. He wasn't trying to stay ahead but only slowing Lewis as much time as possible.”

The “dirty” move in question happened on lap 20 of the 2021 season finale at Yas Marina when Sergio Perez held up Lewis Hamilton to allow teammate Max Verstappen to close the gap to the latter. Red Bull had deliberately let out Perez on 22 laps old soft tires, even as others in front of him pitted for fresh tires.

Bourdais formerly raced in F1 with Red Bull’s junior team Toro Rosso (now Alpha Tauri) between 2008-09, during which time he was teammates with Sebastian Vettel. However, in mid-2009, he was unceremoniously dropped from Toro Rosso in favor of Jamie Alguersuari, citing poor results.

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Lewis Hamilton talks about his experiences facing racism in junior formula

Lewis Hamilton is the only black driver to have ever raced in F1 history. And that makes all his record-breaking achievements in the sport truly spectacular.

Born into a working-class mixed family, Hamilton’s road to F1 was much harder compared to that of an average person. To reach the top flight of motorsport, Hamilton and his family had to ensure constant racism and discrimination.

In the documentary “Strong Black Lead”, produced by Netflix, Hamilton has opened up about his experiences with racism growing up.

Nearly 14 years after Lewis Hamilton made his debut in the sport, F1, and motorsport in general, is still predominantly white and European. In recent years, Hamilton has sought to change that, and achieve greater diversity in motorsport and not just drivers, but also in other motorsport professions such as engineers, mechanics, and the rest.