Sainz responds to alleged Perez incident: 'There has to be a rule for that'

Max Verstappen has not said it explicitly, but his decision to ignore team orders in the Brazilian Grand Prix is said to have been a reaction to Sergio Perez's alleged deliberate crash during qualifying in Monaco. Without passing judgement on the moment, Carlos Sainz is calling for a rule change that penalises deliberately causing red flags.

Sainz does not mention specific moments, but does state that there have been "a few intentional incidents". The Ferrari driver says the subject has been raised before, but he thinks it is now time for a rule to prevent such abuse.

Sainz wants F1 rule for deliberate crashing

On Perez's alleged deliberate crash, the Spaniard does not want to pass judgement, but he believes Formula 1 should take action. "Without commenting if it was on purpose or not, I think it’s for real now that all drivers want some kind of a rule. If you generate a red flag or a yellow flag, even if it’s intentional or not, there should be something done to that driver because you’ve compromised the other nine," Sainz told GPblog and others in the press conference.

The Ferrari driver believes such an action should be punished. "If not, we’re all gonna start playing with it," he warns. Sainz says he has seen it happen more often in recent years that drivers deliberately make a spin or crash in qualifying, but understandably does not want to give examples.