Carlos Sainz believes the oil spilt pre-race by some of the parade cars was “unacceptable” and contributed to the chaos at Turn 1 on the first lap of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Sainz had qualified on the front row alongside his team-mate but was demoted 10 places due to taking on a third Energy Store which exceeded his yearly allocation.
The Spaniard’s attempts to make up early ground were thwarted when he slid into Lewis Hamilton at the first turn, demoting him towards the back of the grid in 17th.
Meanwhile, Fernando Alonso also spun at Turn 1 on his own, resulting in a concertina effect that saw both Valtteri Bottas and Sergio Perez inherit front wing damage.
Before the race had got underway three of the parade vehicles had broken down on the start-finish straight, leaking streams of oil onto the grid slots on the left-hand side.
“I saw a lot of oil from the cars that we used to do the drivers’ parade, which is another thing for the FIA to look at, because I think that it’s not fair, all the oil was on the inside line, apart from the dirty track already being there, in front of all that we put cars that are leaking oil into the track one hour before the race, it is, again, unacceptable,” Sainz said.
“That probably caused a lot of the crashes into Turn 1.”
Despite the spots being patched up with dust in an emergency clean-up operation, Sainz insists that the spillage still hampered his braking capacity into Turn 1 at the start.
Asked if the touch with Hamilton had stemmed from running over the spots of oil, Sainz replied: “Yes. I hit the brakes, I had a lot of dust from the oil, and I just had no grip.
“I think Fernando also spun, drivers with a lot of experience finding just zero grip, so unfortunate for everyone but, at the same time, you could never have expected that.”
He added: “You’d never expected it to be so bad. I just touched the brakes, not even hit it and the tyres were just locked. I didn’t even brake that late, I was at the 100m board, but arriving at 100kph slower than on [a] qualifying lap. The cold tyres probably played a role, but it was absolutely shocking on lap one and I think we all struggled from it.”
Fortunately, Sainz avoided significant damage from the glancing blow and was able to take advantage of an early Virtual Safety Car period to pit for fresh tyres.
“Probably something on the suspension or the steering wheel [was damaged], but nothing that really limited me to continue.”
Sainz had progressed his way up into the points places once those ahead made their first stop later on when a Safety Car was called on Lap 26 to clear debris at Turn 14.
Ferrari took the opportunity to pit Sainz and he emerged in 10th place on the Hard compound, but he initially struggled to advance amid power unit temperature concerns.
“Ah, that was why it was such a tricky race and damage limitation, because, again, on traffic, a lot of lift and coast, we couldn’t overtake people because we were protecting the engine,” Sainz explained.
“We also had to protect the tyres from the graining, so it was never going to be an easy race, an easy comeback.”
However, the two-time F1 race winner eventually climbed to seventh place by the chequered flag, which became sixth once George Russell’s time penalty for an earlier clash with Max Verstappen was applied.
“Coming back to 6th was definitively a good comeback and damage limitation,” he reflected. “I did everything I could, it wasn’t easy, also, with the graining, in traffic it was almost impossible not to open the graining following other cars. We managed to recover, as I said, damage limitation.”
But Sainz was made to rue the unavoidable grid penalty that derived from the damage he sustained when he ran over a water valve cover in the opening minutes of FP1.
Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc was denied victory from pole position by the timing of the Safety Car working against him, but he still split the Red Bull drivers.
“You saw today what happened at the front, the pace Charles had and with two Ferrari up there, I think we would have had a very fun race for the podium, or for the win, so we missed out a bit on that, although it was a good day for the team in terms of Constructors, it should have been even better,” Sainz conceded.
“I think it was a decent show, I just wish I could have been up there with the two Red Bull and Charles. I think we could have put an even better fight for the win.”
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