Carlos Sainz has voiced his displeasure about what he perceived to be a “viral” overreaction to his criticism of Formula 1‘s Singapore Grand Prix TV broadcast.
The 31-year-old has been on a stellar run of form in the last couple of race weekends, backing up his maiden podium for Williams in Baku with a sublime drive on the streets of Singapore.
Sainz’s blistering charge through the field included a flurry of overtakes that were missed by the official F1 TV broadcast.
In the past, the TV direction has come under fire from fans for prioritising the off-track glamour over the on-track action.
This time around, Sainz jumped on this particular bandwagon as he slammed the broadcasters for wasting screen time on girlfriends and celebrities rather than the overtaking.
In response, F1 came out with a statement defending its direction of the events.
In the paddock for the US GP at the Circuit of the Americas, the Williams driver was asked if he still felt the same way he did two weeks ago about how the sport has been covering the races.
“I didn’t need an answer,” he told media including Motorsport Week, referring to F1’s statement.
The former Ferrari driver was adamant that while he did not intend for his comments to become a big story, he still firmly stands by his opinion.
“I think, like always, I think my comments were a bit blown out of proportion. I think the fact that I mentioned the girlfriends or the WAGs, however you call them, it brought a bit of spiciness to the comment and went a bit more viral worldwide,” asserted Sainz.
“And maybe what it should have been just a simple critique about… I think it is clear that in Singapore the broadcast didn’t do a good job.
“I mean, there’s other races where they do an incredible job and they show us incredible things and incredible track action.
“For me, Singapore was not good.”
Sainz wants F1 to take responsibility for TV coverage after Singapore GP failings
The 31-year-old was pretty forthcoming about his views on how the sport should move forward, the first point on his agenda being to take accountability for the content it puts out for the fans.
Sainz compared the quality of the TV broadcast to his own performances as a driver, susceptible to a few ‘bad weekends’.
“But the same thing, I have good weekends in my life where I perform at a very high level. On other weekends, I don’t do a good job,” he added.
“You guys analyse it, you give me a rating. I did a 4 out of 10 and then you tell me I did a 10 out of 10.
“Obviously, everyone has their own right to say. For me, Singapore was just not good enough and they missed way too much track action.”
The four-time race-winner feels this was particularly a “shame” given the historical dearth of overtaking action at the Marina Bay Street Circuit, something he ensured was not the case this time around.
“[It] doesn’t mean it’s a critique to them or the way they do their job. It’s just Singapore; it’s a shame that in a track where it’s so difficult to overtake, we missed so many,” he explained.
“I hope they didn’t take it personal or I hope they didn’t.”
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