Ferrari team boss Frederic Vasseur says it is paying a “mega price” for the incident that has left Carlos Sainz with a 10-place grid penalty for the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Formula 1’s long-awaited return to Vegas was curtailed only eight minutes in when Sainz ran over a water valve cover and sustained extensive damage to his Ferrari.
Vasseur immediately branded the episode “unacceptable”, before revealing that Sainz’s SF-23 car would require a change of chassis, power unit and also a new gearbox.
However, with Ferrari needing to insert a third energy store outside of Sainz’s penalty-free allowance for the campaign, the Italian marque asked for dispensation from the FIA.
Despite the “highly unusual and unfortunate circumstances”, Ferrari’s appeal was eventually dismissed, leaving Sainz to contend with a 10-place drop on Sunday.
Asked by Autosport if he had conversed with the stewards himself, Vasseur said: “Sure, I went there, and I discussed with them. It’s a strange feeling for us, because first, I don’t think that we did something wrong.”
With Ferrari only 20 points behind Mercedes in the Constructors’ Championship and tipped to be strong this weekend, Vasseur has lamented the timing of the ordeal.
“We have to pay a mega price for this,” he added. “And on the top, you have the penalty when you know that we are fighting for the championship, and 10 places is a huge hit.
“OK, we have to try to avoid thinking about it, to do the job that we can come back. We have a good pace, we have to be focused on the quali, and then to do a good race. We don’t have time to discuss this.”
Amid rumours that Mercedes had objected to Ferrari being granted an exception to the rules, Vasseur was questioned on whether rival teams could have supported his case.
“I don’t think that it could be a decision from the teams, to say that we allow them to do this or that,” the Frenchman answered. “Now tomorrow if someone pushed in the other direction, it’s another story.”
Meanwhile, Esteban Ocon also suffered damage in the truncated opening practice hour, resulting in a chassis change on his car ahead of the delayed second session.
Along with Alpine, Ferrari avoided running into trouble with the regulation stipulating that each competitor is only mandated to use a singular chassis across one day.
“This was a good joke as well,” Vasseur remarked. “You are not allowed to change your chassis during the day. But they told us you past midnight, it means that it’s not the same day anymore!”
With FP1 abandoned to allow the relevant parties to conduct checks of the other manholes at the new 6.1km venue, second practice was also extensively delayed.
The two-and-a-half hour wait before an extended 90-minute FP2 got underway enabled the Ferrari crew to rebuild Sainz’s car to ensure he didn’t miss any track time.
“We are not trying to have a record on this,” Vasseur added. “But for sure it was a big one, because we had to change the chassis, engine, battery, gearbox, to build up a new one. It was a good job from the mechanics.”
The Maranello squad’s inaugural day of running at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit ended more positively, though, as Sainz trailed team-mate Charles Leclerc in a Ferrari 1-2.
Expanding on Ferrari’s encouraging showing, Vasseur concluded: “We know that it’s a bit like Monaco or Baku, it’s a long weekend, and we have to build up the performance over the weekend. It’s not just matter to be quick in P1, but it’s better to be quick in P1.
“We know that it will be about graining, but so far, so good. The track will improve much more than a normal track, it means that you have to anticipate what will be the status [of the] track for Saturday.”
Discussion about this post