• Horrific new details on Bianchi’s death published
His accident comes less than a week after the death of Bianchi, who succumbed to injuries sustained in a horrific crash in last year’s Japanese Grand Prix. It has reignited the debate around safety, which Perez addressed in the drivers’ press conference on Thursday afternoon.
“Obviously when something like this happens you know that there is a big level of risk,” Perez said. “It’s what we love to do and when something like this happens to our colleague, we all know it could have been ourselves in that car – but it doesn’t really change anything.
“I’ve had some accidents in the past and you know that the risk is there. We all know. It can happen in any practice, any day, as soon as you jump into the car, you know that the risk is very high but it doesn’t really change anything.”
The Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg set the pace on a scorching morning in Budapest. But Lotus were barely able to make it out of the garage after Pirelli refused to release their tyres because the team had failed to pay their bills. The late quarterly payment is believed to be in the region of £350,000.
The Enstone-based team, who have Englishman Jolyon Palmer among their ranks as a reserve driver, blamed a banking technicality but their financial future appears uncertain. Lotus faced a winding-up petition brought by creditors earlier this month, but the matter was resolved out of court.
The owners are waiting to see if Renault buy the team out, but in the meantime their financial situation appears increasingly precarious.