Toto Wolff, the CEO and principal owner of the Mercedes team, feels that Carlos Sainz’s grid penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix was “awful” and “absolutely unfair.”
When Formula 1 returned to Sin City in November of last year, the 29-year-old was forced to accept a 10-place grid penalty. Following Sainz’s car’s destruction by a water valve cover, Ferrari was powerless to stop the penalty. It forced the Scuderia to swap out the Spaniard’s control electronics, ICE, and battery.
The water valve cover broke free and damaged Sainz’s SF-23, even though he had already used up all of the permitted number of batteries for the 2023 season. However, the FIA’s regulations do not contain any force majeure provisions that would have permitted the stewards to spare Sainz from a penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Practice for the F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas
Chris Graythen/Getty Images photo
Carlos Sainz is “still furious” over his grid penalty from the Grand Prix of Las Vegas.
Within the first eight minutes of Formula One in Nevada, Sainz’s Ferrari was struck by a shattered water valve cover. In order to inspect the remainder of the track, the stewards would also end the first practice session early. However, the damage pretty much made Sainz’s whole weekend miserable.
Despite qualifying just 0.044 seconds slower than his pole-positioning teammate, Charles Leclerc, Sainz’s 10-place grid penalty cost him a P2 start. The native of Madrid further ruined his chances of bouncing back from the penalty when, on the first lap, he spun and collided with Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes.
Race: F1 Grand Prix of Las Vegas
Chris Graythen/Getty Images photo
At Turn 1, Sainz understeered into the Mercedes driver, but Ferrari’s tactic helped him place sixth. However, Frederic Vasseur, the principal of the Scuderia team, called it “unacceptable” that their car was destroyed by a water valve cover. In December, Sainz acknowledged that he was “still angry.”
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Mercedes CEO Toto Wolff thinks it was “awful” that Ferrari driver Daniel Sainz received a grid penalty for an incident that was beyond his control. McLaren CEO Zak Brown agreed, calling Sainz’s treatment “unfair.” Mercedes CEO In addition, Wolff has urged the FIA to change its regulations, calling Sainz’s grid penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix “absolutely unfair.”
Wolff put himself in the Ferrari pilot’s position and thinks it would have been “awful” for Sainz. Thus, it is only fitting that the FIA now examines its regulations and decides whether Formula 1 requires a force majeure clause that permits the stewards to nullify specific penalties under specific circumstances.
Wolff said to Planet F1 that “what happened to Carlos was absolutely unfair.” “I am referring to the fine. Unjust. As a racer, I am the first to argue that the result was not fair to him. Although I believe we should review the regulations, force majeure is a challenging one.
“As a sportsman, nobody liked the situation,” Wolff continued. He lost a race weekend that he may have won because of what unfairly happened to him. Thus, we must examine and carefully consider [how] we might modify it.
