Carlos Sainz says he’s been left in “disbelief” after being handed a significant penalty during stunning scenes to open the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc in the second practice was 0.517 seconds faster than his teammate Sainz, who had been at the centre of the unprecedented FP1 session when his car hit the drain cover earlier.
Adding to the messy nature of the opening night of action at the new track, the second practice finished at 4am local time having started two and a half hours behind schedule and with fans being asked to leave the venue.
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Sainz was forced to a stop in his Ferrari after hitting the cover, resulting in a red flag and damage to the front of his car on what should have been a triumphant return for F1 to Vegas after two races in 1981 and 1982.
Sparks flew from the bottom of Sainz’s car after it hit what organisers called a “water valve cover”.
After some delay organisers announced that the session would not be resumed. The second practice session was scheduled for midnight local time but was delayed as course workers carried out urgent checks and repairs.
Adding to the confusion, fans at the track were left unclear about when that session would take place for over two hours before they were asked to leave by police with volunteers and staff having reached the end of their shifts.
Ferrari repaired Sainz’s car during the two-and-a-half hour delay, leading to him finishing the session in second behind Leclerc.
But when FP2 began, Sainz was promptly handed a 10-place grid penalty for the weekend’s race for using a third energy store of the season – one more than regulations allow.
Ferrari had made a request for a ‘free’ battery change – but that was denied. FIA stewards said they had no choice but to impose the mandatory sanction despite “highly unusual external circumstances”.
The stewards reportedly spent three hours scouring the regulations for a way to give an exception for Ferrari – and even wrote that they would have given him a free pass if the regulations allowed, but were unable to find any wiggle-room.
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The FIA stewards report read: “The stewards note that if they had the authority to grant a derogation in what they consider in this case to be mitigating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, however the regulations do not allow such action.”
Sainz said he was initially “quite excited and optimistic” after his team’s prompt work, before he found out about the penalty for “something that I have no fault, and the team have no fault”.
“That changed completely my mindset and my opinion on the weekend and how it’s going to go from now on. I’m disappointed and in disbelief with the situation. You will not see me very happy this weekend,” Sainz said.
“There will be opportunities (on race day). But right now I am just too disappointed with the outcome and I don’t want to talk too much about the future because what happened today, for me, was a very clear example of how this sport can be improved in so many ways.
“The FIA, teams and rules that can clearly be applied as force majeure for me not to take a penalty but someway there is always people or ways to make the situation worse for an individual and in this case it’s my turn to pay the price.”
Sainz said he received a “pretty big hit on my back and neck after the incident”.
Aussie AlphaTaur driver Daniel Ricciardo said he was alarmed by Sainz’s accident in FP1, adding the penalty the Spaniard copped was “not fair”.
Asked whether there’d been more focus on the off-track festivities, rather than the on-track product, in the lead up to the weekend in Las Vegas, Riccardo said: “It’s fair question, I think,” he replied. “The biggest thing is safety. Fortunately, Carlos is okay but those things could be bigger with bigger consequences.
“I think it’s easy to say now that we did an opening ceremony and we’re kind of focusing on other things, and did they actually do the due diligence on the track?
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“So, with all that happened today you could ask some questions like, did they do enough? But that one for sure. I can’t sidestep that one. That is a safety concern.
“Us being here late, that’s fine. But I think the safety one is something hopefully they take pretty seriously.”
Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur was clearly angry about the state of the track in a news conference after FP1.
“We damaged completely the monocoque, the engine, the battery. I think it’s just unacceptable,” he said.
“It cost us a fortune. I think it’s just unacceptable for F1 today.”
— AFP
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