Perez handed seven place grid drop for Brazilian GP - MotorSportsTalk

Sergio Perez has been handed a seven place grid penalty for next weekend’s Brazilian Grand Prix after crashing into Sauber’s Adrian Sutil during today’s race in the United States.

On the opening lap of the race, Perez tried to overtake Sutil heading into turn 15 at the Circuit of the Americas, but instead made contact with the German driver.

The end result was that both drivers were forced to retire from the race, with this marking the third straight year that Sutil has failed to complete the first lap of the race in Austin.

“What happened today is really unfortunate,” Perez said after the race. “I made a move on Adrian at turn 15 when he left the door open, so I went up the inside.

“Then Adrian started to close the door and I had to try and brake later than him. By doing so I was unable to avoid contact with Kimi [Raikkonen], which caused me to make contact with Adrian also.”

The stewards looked dimly on the incident, handing Perez a grid penalty for the Brazilian Grand Prix next weekend.

“The driver of car #11 could not reasonably have expected to complete the manoeuvre,” the stewards said in a statement. “His collison with car #99 was reckless.”

Perez has also been handed his first two penalty points on his FIA superlicense, which will remain for 12 months.

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An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”