F1: Sergio Perez alleges nationality bias; points to Russell's crash at Singapore GP

Red Bull driver Sergio Perez has claimed there is a nationality bias in the media, pointing to the recent crash involvingGeorge Russell.

During the Singapore Grand Prix, the British driver had an awful crash on the last lap of the race which pushed him from third place to last.Perez explained there was not much noise around the crash but if the same happened to him, the media platforms would instantly make stories andspeculate about drivers underperforming and their seats being in danger.

“We saw it with Russell. He crashed from third place on the last lap, but you don’t hear anyone talking about it. If something like that happens at Red Bull, you immediately have three hundred media channels on your roof telling you that you have to leave,” he told Spanish publication Marca.

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"This kind of thing happens a lot in F1 and that's how it works in a team environment, but I think it also has a lot of influence that I am Mexican," he added.

Other instances of bias against Perez

Perez insinuating of a subconscious bias in the media and on the F1 grid regarding his Mexican heritageis not without reasons. Last month,Red Bull consultant Helmut Marko was forced to apologise for his offensive remarks where he blamed Perez's fluctuating form on his 'cultural heritage'.

“We know that he has problems in qualifying, he has fluctuations in form, he is South American and he is just not as completely focused in his head as Max [Verstappen] is or as Sebastian [Vettel],” Marko said then.

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After receiving extreme backlash for his rather innate comments, the 80-year-old Austrian, who is an adviser to Red Bull, issued a formal statement.

“I would like to apologise for my offensive remark and want to make it absolutely clear that I do not believe that we can generalise about the people from any country, any race, any ethnicity."

Meanwhile, Red Bull boss Christian Horner has already hinted about Perez's contract extension being in jeopardy, especially if he underperforms.

"Checo is in the hot seat at the moment and will obviously be keen to extend. We’ll see how Daniel does; we’ll see how Yuki does and in the background we’ll see what Liam’s capable of in the test-and-reserve role," he told Sky Sports.

While Perez struggles to emulate the performance of his teammate Max Verstappen, he remains in the second spot in the driver standings, maintaining a lead of 33 points over third-place Lewis Hamilton.

(With inputs from agencies)

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