“That’s good for us”: McLaren garage react to Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez’s messy wreck in Baku

McLaren F1 team members were cheering Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz on after he was battling with Red Bull driver Sergio Perez on the penultimate lap of the F1 2024 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, last Sunday. The Spanish driver momentarily inherited the final podium slot after making an opportunistic move on Perez.

The 30-year-old was in no man's land for the majority of the race on Sunday after losing his P3 to Perez on the opening lap. He was quietly managing his tires while the front three battled for the top spot for almost 30 laps.

On the penultimate lap, Sainz got his opportunity as he made the move on the Red Bull driver after the latter was unsuccessful in getting P2 from Charles Leclerc. In a video floating on social media, the McLaren F1 team was cheering on the Ferrari driver in his quest for a podium position as it would have benefited Oscar Paistri in extending his advantage and creating a gap to the chasing pack.

One of the team members in the garage mentioned that the crash between Sainz and Perez was 'good' for the Woking-based outfit as it prevented either driver from chasing down Piastri, saying:

"Bloody hell, that's a red flag every day of the week. That’s good for us.”

Carlos Sainz gives his take on his collision with Sergio Perez

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz stated that the collision between him and Sergio Perez was 'disappointing' and 'unfortunate' as he was trying to attack his Ferrari teammate, Charles Leclerc for P2 in the race.

Speaking with F1.com, the Spanish driver said:

"I was attacking Charles into Turn 2 and then I exited Turn 2. Checo was on my left. We normally do a slight drift towards the left into the long straight, which I did like every other lap, and suddenly for some reason I don’t understand, Checo and I collided, which is unfortunate and also very disappointing."

He further revealed that he and the Mexican driver had spoken to each other about the incident, claiming:

“We’ve spoken already. [But] we need to analyze. I’m not someone who wants to put blame on either an excuse or put blame on another driver. It’s racing, everything happens super-fast. My feeling today is honestly I did nothing wrong, I didn’t do any erratic maneuver, put him against the wall, or anything like that."

He added:

"We were just, like every other lap, drifting a bit, a tiny, tiny little bit towards the left because that’s where the racing line is and we just touched. It is what it is.”

Owing to his crash, Sainz potentially lost an opportunity to score his first podium in Baku and also failed to score any points for the second time in three years at the track.