Carlos Sainz blames the ‘change’ Abu Dhabi GP track for his FP2 crash

Sainz blamed his FP2 crash on the changes made to the Yas Marina Circuit layout.

Carlos Sainz blames the ‘change’ Abu Dhabi GP track for his FP2 crash

Ferrari's Carlos Sainz (via Imago)

Carlos Sainz crashed out of FP2, meeting the barrier after hitting a bump. Subsequently, the incident brought out a red flag. It was later followed by another one brought out by Nico Hulkenberg, disrupting most drivers’ long runs on different fuel loads. 

Sainz had some dirty air from the car in front and was slightly distracted by the same car ahead of him. The Spaniard hit a bump, lost control of the car, and met the barrier. The Ferrari driver was medically alright and no significant damage was done to his car. The 2x Grand Prix winner blamed the track for the incident, claiming a small change in the track concerning the bumps that caused the crash. 

YouTube video
For some reason, there has been a change in the track compared to other years. There’s two bumps, one at the exit of turn two and one at the entry of turn three that, with this new generation of cars, it’s upsetting the car a lot.
Carlos Sainz told Sky Sports

Sainz was in a similar situation stalled on the grid for FP1 in Las Vegas as well, just a week ago. The Singapore GP winner had incurred much more damage then, which ended up in him receiving a 10-place grid drop to 12th. 

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Carlos Sainz said he was a complete passenger in Abu Dhabi FP1 crash

Carlos Sainz brought out the red flag in a practice session by crashing out for the second week running, repeating the Las Vegas feat in Abu Dhabi. The Spaniard was joined by Nico Hulkenberg who also lost control of his car as he found no grip on his tyres.

Carlos Sainz at the Las Vegas Grand Prix
Carlos Sainz at the Las Vegas Grand Prix (via Sky Sports F1)

Sainz acclaimed the safety of the modern F1 cars, saying he felt perfectly fine other than a little soreness following such a big crash. The 29-year-old also said that he was a complete passenger during the crash, and there was nothing he could do after losing control.

With these safe cars you can get away with these pretty big hits pretty untouched…I just couldn’t control the car. It just snapped on me and it’s those moments where you feel like you’re a complete passenger and you wish you maybe would have done something different.
Carlos Sainz said, as reported by racefans.net

Carlos Sainz is currently fighting for P4 in the Drivers’ Championship, equalling Fernando Alonso at 200 points. Right behind at 195 is his former teammate Lando Norris, joining the three-way battle between drivers from three different teams for P4 in the season finale on Sunday.

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