Perez warns of crash risk after Baku near-miss

Sergio Perez says he narrowly avoided a major collision with Liam Lawson while defending during the Azerbaijan Grand Prix in Baku, and warned that differences in energy deployment and engine power between Formula 1 cars could lead to a serious crash if regulations are not changed. The Cadillac driver made the comments after the race, describing a rapid change in speed as Lawson approached. Perez attributed the near-miss to differences in how the cars were deploying energy and to disparities between their power units. The account comes from Perez; the supplied reporting includes no independent account from Lawson, telemetry or incident review to establish the cars’ relative speeds or proximity. Perez said he was concerned that cars could close on one another quickly when one had less energy available and another was deploying power. He also said Mercedes and Red Bull had particularly strong engines, creating a disadvantage for cars with weaker or less consistent deployment. His comments focused on the safety implications of those speed differences, not on a confirmed finding about the cause of a formally investigated incident.