“It was certainly not an ideal situation,” Carlos Sainz shocked by lack of urgency after his Ferrari caught fire at the Austrian GP
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Carlos Sainz
Carlos Sainz has witnessed the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in the matter of a couple of weeks. From winning his first ever Formula 1 race at Silverstone to retiring out of the Austrian GP due to an engine failure, the Spaniard has gone through a roller coaster of emotions. This also showed us how unpredictable Formula 1 can be at times.
It was evident that Ferrari had the upper hand on race day in Austria, which was surprising to see as Max Verstappen had dominated both qualifying and the sprint. That was down to the scorching heat which suited Red Bull more than Ferrari. But, with the temperatures coming down on race day, the tyre degradation was much more on that Red Bull, forcing Max into an early pit stop and leaving him vulnerable in the last stint of the race.
As both the Ferraris came out on the track after their second pit stop with fresher tyres, it was pretty clear that Max will be overtaken. After Charles Leclerc made his move, it was Carlos Sainz’s turn to get past the Dutchman. But, unfortunately, as he was preparing to send one, smoke was sprinkling out of the engine and within a matter of minutes, the car was on fire.
Also read: Lewis Hamilton crashes into the barriers bringing out the red flag in Q3
Carlos Sainz believes that the rescue could have taken less time after his dramatic incident in Austria
The car was also tumbling down as it was parked on a slope by Carlos Sainz. What was shocking was the time taken to rescue the driver. Carlos, after the incident, said, “It was not an ideal or an easy situation for sure, because I could see in my mirrors that my car was catching fire.”
“I was pressing the brake, but as soon as I tried to jump out, I didn’t want to leave the car completely free, out of control, and rolling backwards.”
“I was calling the marshals to come and help me, to put something on the tyres to stop the car from rolling. But the whole process was a bit slow and at some point there was so much fire that I had to get a move on and I had to jump out.”
“It is definitely something we need to look at how we could have done it a bit faster, because it was not an easy situation to be in.”
It was a pretty dramatic incident as Carlos Sainz was able to get out of the car in the nick of time before the car caught alight. We have seen faster rescue acts and therefore, this is something to look at for the FIA.
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Shubham Bajpai
(776 Articles Published)