Quote:
Originally Posted by dfox
That story that Perez intentionally crashed his car is complete hogwash. It's that type of journalism that has created all of this nonsense.
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Erik van Haren is a Dutch F1 journalist of the established Dutch newspaper 'De Telegraaf'. Not some random click-bait YouTuber who has never been on a race paddock talking to F1 people.
Back in 2022 he unreservedly claimed that Perez deliberately crashed in Q3 of the Monaco qualies of May 28, 2022. No cautious "maybe", "probably" or "possibly", but "100%", "fact" and "pure intent" (also explicitly denying that his claim was "suggestive").
Now, as that journalist knows very well that making frivolous claims could have dire consequences for himself and his newspaper, we may reasonably assume that he must have duly fact-checked his Perez bomb shell statement prior to making it public as "fact". He litteraly told in an interview about Max Verstappen defying RBR team orders in the final stages of the Brazil 2022 race:
"Was it Monaco? He [Max Verstappen] replied something along the lines « You can decide that. I'm not gonna say it ». Well, I just know for 100% that that's case. He's not saying it, but we are there to disclose it to the world.".
Speaking about the 'coincidence' of being at the right place at the right time: van Haren also claimed that during the Azerbaijan race weekend (June 10-12, 2022; the next race after the Monaco race weekend of May 27-29, 2022) he was
"by chance standing next to Red Bull" and that he heard Helmut Marko ask where Perez was. According to van Haren, after returning from the press conference, Perez was escorted upstairs where he was
"summoned to explain". van Haren added:
"And apparently, there, Perez has internally admitted that he had deliberately spun during the final run of the qualifications. He had P3, so it was not about pole position. He saw on his steering wheel via the delta time that he was not faster underway. He thought « I park over there » and so Verstappen - who was faster underway - can no longer pass.". Was van Haren a fly on the wall during that internal conversation or does he have a wild imagination or did someone who's very well-informed and didn't mind a controversial leak, tip this Dutch journalist ?
Perez and Red Bull Racing could have taken action against van Haren because of alleged slander and reputational damage, or could have flatly denied the statement in an official press release, or could have declared van Haren
'persona non grata' at the RBR paddock garage. But it looks as if none of that has happened.
And the smoking gun of the Horner bomb shell news earlier this week ? In case you wondered, it was Erik van Haren again who leaked it as scoop in the "Telesport" section of the Dutch newspaper 'De Telegraaf': a big cover page featuring the headlines
"Independent investigation into team boss Christian Horner - Bomb bursts at Red Bull" and
"The end seems near for Horner". The scoop was subsequently picked up in the press worldwide. Horner confirmed to 'De Telegraaf' newspaper that he denies all allegations.
In a Dutch podcast earlier this week, former Dutch F1 driver Giedo van der Garde phoned Erik van Haren to discuss his bomb shell scoop. van Haren explained that he
"received a tip" and subsequently duly fact-checked the tip and also discussed with his superiors and legal counsel how to bring this
"delicate" scoop last Monday. He added that he had been in contact with Red Bull HQ to query (and to his surprise, they replied fairly quickly that an external investigation was indeed ongoing, instead of refusing to comment) and that he deliberately didn't reveal the peculiars of the case that he has heard, as he preferred to be restrained/reserved for reasons of evidence/proof.
02:48 - 11:05 (phone interview - English auto-generated subtitles available):
Other interview where Erik van Haren explains his scoop (English auto-generated transcript
here):
https://www.telegraaf.nl/video/69195...is-veelzeggend