Alpine boss claims Carlos Sainz’s controversial 10-place Las Vegas GP penalty over manhole drama was the ‘right decision’

Carlos Sainz had an outing to forget during the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend.

Alpine boss claims Carlos Sainz’s controversial 10-place Las Vegas GP penalty over manhole drama was the ‘right decision’

Bruno Famin and Carlos Sainz (Credits: Auto Hebdo and Sky News)

The 2023 Formula 1 season has become a thing of the past but the flames around some of the incidents that took place have still not been completely extinguished. One such incident was Carlos Sainz’s manhole drama which took place at the inaugural Las Vegas Grand Prix.

Carlos Sainz in his SF-23, ran over a loose manhole during a practice session and for that, was penalised with a 10-place grid penalty. While a lot was said about it back then, Alpine boss, Bruno Famin has once again brought it into the limelight and admitted that it was the right decision. While talking about the same recently, told Soymotor;

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It was very unfortunate for Carlos but, honestly, I don't see what other option the FIA ​​stewards had in that case. I think the stewards made the right decision, unfortunately for Carlos. it's very unfortunate because he had nothing to do but there was no other option.

Looking at the reaction of the Frenchman, it is quite clear that he feels, the FIA steward’s hands were tied in the Carlos Sainz Las Vegas incident. However, he has made it known that the sole loser in that case was Sainz, who had no option but to start the 50-lap race with a 10-place grid penalty.

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Alpine had a pretty disappointing 2023 F1 season

While Bruno Famin has made it known that Carlos Sainz’s Las Vegas GP penalty was the right decision, the former must not be pleased with how the 2023 F1 season panned out for his Alpine F1 team. The French outfit despite its best efforts, was only able to manage a sixth-place in the Constructors Championship.

Alpine (Credits: F1-Fansite)
(Credits: F1-Fansite)

Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly had quite a few DNFs during the campaign, and because of this, they were only able to conjure up 58 and 62 points respectively. It was a disappointing campaign more so because they were able to end the 2022 campaign in a brilliant fourth position.

Keeping in view everything that has been discussed above, next year’s campaign is going to hold immense significance for the Alpine F1 team. The team’s upper management will expect a much better 2024 campaign from them and the ongoing winter break could be the key in all of this.

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