Earlier in the evening, the Scuderia driver was the main victim of a poorly sealed manhole during the first practice session Thursday evening on the Vegas urban track, heavily damaging his car after driving under it at full speed. speed. “The car is completely damaged, its engine, its battery,” explained its boss Frédéric Vasseur, deeming the situation “unacceptable”.
After the incident, Ferrari submitted to the stewards a request for a “derogation from the sporting regulations”, in order to allow the replacement of the parts in question without being penalized, but this was refused. If “the damage was caused by very unusual external circumstances,” explained the stewards in an official document, “article 2.1 of the Formula 1 sporting regulations obliges all officials, including stewards, to apply the regulations as it is written.
“Consequently, the mandatory sanction provided for in Article 28.3 of the Sporting Regulations must be applied.” If the commissioners “had the power to grant a waiver in the face of what they consider in this case to be extenuating, unusual and unfortunate circumstances, they would have done so, but the regulations do not permit such action,” is- he also writes in this same document.
If he does not change other elements of his car by then in contravention of the regulations, Sainz will therefore start tenth at best on Saturday evening (10 p.m. local time, Sunday 6 a.m. GMT). Because of this incident, the second and final practice session of the day began 2h30 late, taking time to secure each of the manhole covers on the track. His Ferrari repaired, Sainz was able to return to the track.
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