Last weekend, at the 2022 Formula 1 Austrian Grand Prix, Sainz and his car were unexpected protagonists in the last moments of the race and in a somewhat unfortunate way, which also generated a controversy related to the track marshals .
When everything seemed to indicate that Carlos Sainz would finish the race in second position, just behind Charles Leclerc, thus signing a very important double for Ferrari, the driver from Madrid had to retire on lap 57 of 71 due to a breakdown in the unit of power from your F1-75.
The Spaniard quickly moved away from the track and tried to stop at one of the loopholes on the track, but two consecutive explosions at the rear of his car caused the engine cover to be seen engulfed in flames and, being on a slope, he could not stop completely.
While asking for the help of the marshals to be able to park the car and get out to avoid being engulfed by the flames, the action of the marshalls was slower than usual and that practically forced him to jump out of the car while it was still moving.
After the race, Sainz himself was somewhat critical of the performance of the Red Bull Ring track marshals, who wanted to defend themselves a few days later through a statement:
“After Jules Bianchi’s terrible accident in 2014, the FIA rules for on-track interventions have been tightened drastically and are only allowed after the go-ahead from race control. On the one hand, this increases the safety of the drivers. and the stewards, but on the other hand, it has the disadvantage that the interventions are a bit slower”.
“In the incident with Carlos Sainz at Turn 4, several unfortunate circumstances came together. The place where Sainz stopped the Ferrari was not visible from the stewards’ stand. After this, they were instructed by radio to go to the car with fire extinguishers and, when they got a better look at the situation, they made the decision to call the fire truck. This last decision had to be made in a matter of seconds and, in hindsight, was absolutely correct.”
“If you remember the Grosjean accident, in a situation like that, hand held fire extinguishers were not enough. So the fire extinguisher order was cancelled, and that led to the unfortunate image that was seen on television of the commissioner dropping the fire extinguisher. and “running away”.
“Another issue was that Sainz understandably got nervous and released the brakes too early. [A stewards] had to push the wedge under the car as it moved, which obviously made this procedure extremely tricky.
“Of course, in retrospect, when you look at the television images and the camera recordings of the track, there are things that need to be improved. We will also discuss this internally. But in an exceptional situation like that, because a fire is also not something For us, the marshals reacted well overall. We had a fire truck on the spot in less than 30 seconds, which would have brought a fire under control quickly.”
“Another emergency vehicle was already waiting and a third was on the way. Even if Sainz hadn’t gotten out of the vehicle on his own, we would have been able to protect him in the best possible way.”
“We are a team made up of motorsports lovers, who sacrifice their free time in order to help as much as possible and ensure as much safety as possible. We will also look at this incident as an opportunity to improve even more,” he concluded.
The burned car of Carlos Sainz, the Ferrari F1-75, after a fire that caused his abandonment in Austria
