Carlos Sainz Jr’s Ferrari experienced a particularly dangerous incident in Free Practice 1 after just a few minutes. The Spanish driver had to stop his car in the middle of the straight in front of the Bellagio hotel after hitting an unsealed manhole cover at over 300 km/h.
« We are checking the damage caused to Carlos’ car when he hit the sewer cover, which appears to be quite significant. » Ferrari explains.
On his side, Frédérique Vasseur, the director of Scuderia Ferrari, believes that this kind of thing should not happen.
We completely damaged the monocoque, the engine, and the battery. I think it’s simply unacceptable. It cost us a fortune. We certainly won’t participate in the EL2.
The FIA will now have to work from the FP2 sessions with the engineers on the track to implement a long-term solution and not risk the lives of the drivers or the finances of the teams.
