In the closing stages of Sunday’s Paul Ricard race, Perez was embroiled in a battle with Mercedes’ George Russell for the final podium spot.
A late virtual safety car was called when Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu broke down at Turn 6 with four laps to go.
On lap 51 of 53, the VSC ended, but Perez was surprised by an incorrect message from the FIA, telling him that the race would resume later than it did, which allowed Russell to take the last place on the podium to the Red Bull driver.
In the regulations for virtual safety car periods, the green flag must be displayed 10 to 15 seconds after the initial end message, but in this case it took almost a minute.
“It’s very unfortunate what happened with the virtual safety car,” Perez said after finishing fourth on Sunday.
“I got the message that it was going to end at turn 9, so I drove and it didn’t end. Then I got the message that it was going to end at turn 12. And I was too close to this.
“It looks like George had different information and he was able to prepare better for it. [the restart].
“I mean, it’s a shame the virtual safety car interfered with the result, to be honest. It shouldn’t have been, but today it did.”
“This [the message of VSC ending] was totally wrong, something was happening because he said it was going to end at turn 9 and it didn’t end until turn 12.”
Sergio Perez, Red Bull Racing RB18, George Russell, Mercedes W13, in the pit lane
Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images
Red Bull team boss Christian Horner believes Perez had the pace to fend off Russell over the final three laps without the VSC issue, and wants to discuss this with the FIA to understand what happened.
“Checo had a little more trouble this weekend with [tyre] degradation that we have seen before,” Horner began.
“And what was frustrating for him was that there was a race control issue with the safety car, the VSC, because they couldn’t turn it off, so they had to do a reset. .
“Just speaking with him, he said he didn’t get the delta in his car, so he was right on his delta.
“George got ahead of him but was in the delta, or maybe the information given to the two cars was different.
“We have to go and explore that. Yes, it was frustrating because I think he would have had the pace to hold him off for a double podium.
“Nevertheless, it’s still important points today in both championships.”
Additional reporting by Luke Smith
