17 November 2023 , 11:21
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Sparks flew from Carlos Sainz's car as a loose manhole cover smashed up his Ferrari and led to first practice at the Las Vegas Grand Prix being cancelled.
Formula 1 chiefs would have been praying for things to go smoothly given how much money has been sunk into this new glamour event. But the weekend got off to a horrible start when that first session was called off after just nine minutes of running.
Sainz and Alpine driver Esteban Ocon sustained damage from the loose manhole cover on track. Off-board footage showed the moment that the Ferrari hit the item which caused a huge cloud of sparks to be sent up into the air.
The session was stopped while FP2 was delayed by two-and-a-half hours as that manhole cover was fixed. Workers were seen pouring concrete into the hole while others set about inspecting other drains on the newly-created street circuit to spot other issues.
The impact caused extensive damage to Sainz's car, which Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur initially said would rule him out of the second session of the night. "The situation is that we damaged completely the monocoque, the engine, the battery. I think it's just unacceptable," lamented the Frenchman.
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"We had a very tough one. This will cost us a fortune. We f***ed up the session for Carlos. We won't be part of the FP2 for sure, we have to change the chassis. Okay, the show is the show and everything is going well but I think it is just unacceptable for F1 today."
The extensive delay to the start of FP2 actually gave Ferrari enough time to fix the car and send Sainz out for that 90-minute session. But the real blow came when the stewards rejected the team's appeal for the Spaniard to avoid a grid drop for using a new engine component outside of his annual allowance.
An official document read: "Having received a request from the competitor requesting a derogation of the sporting regulations in order to allow a replacement of the energy store from outside the pool, without penalty and having heard from the team representative, the director FIA Single Seater Department, having viewed video evidence and examined the team's declaration sheet, the stewards, determine that notwithstanding the fact that the damage was caused by highly unusual external circumstances, Article 2.1 of the Formula 1 Sporting Regulations obliges all officials, including the Stewards, to apply the regulations as they are written.
"Accordingly, the mandatory penalty specified under Article 28.3 of the Sporting Regulations must be applied. 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."
It was later confirmed that Sainz will have to take a 10-place grid penalty for Sunday's race. The stewards had spent hours poring over the regulations to try to find a way not to hand out that sanction, but came to the conclusion that the wording for the rules made it unavoidable.