The scale of the impact Carlos Sainz Jnr suffered in his incident during first practice has been revealed in videos shot by fans at the track.
The Ferrari driver hit a water valve cover which had been dislodged on The Strip. The track was under yellow flag conditions at the time, and Sainz was the fourth in a series of drivers to pass through the section of track after they began waving.The green flags began to wave as Esteban Ocon reached turn 14 at the end of the Strip. Behind him, team mate Pierre Gasly saw the yellow flags, followed by Alexander Albon.
Fernando Alonso was the next driver to be warned by his team about the yellow flags. He appeared to see something on the track and swerved left around the same point Sainz struck the drain.
What happened next was captured by several fans at the scene as well as a closed circuit television camera pointed at the section of track. Sainz, travelling at around 300kph, hit the exposed cover with enough force to damage his car’s survival cell and power unit, and produce an enormous shower of sparks:
Things are not going great for @F1 in Las Vegas: pic.twitter.com/v5bPXGVkzp
— Paloma Villicana (@PalomaFOX5News) November 17, 2023
Video sent to @8NewsNow shows Carlos Sainz's car with sparks flying after he hit a loose manhole cover on the Las Vegas Strip during Thursday's F1 practice. https://t.co/rhg5JYQEu7
🎥: Debbie Swink-Radil pic.twitter.com/Dt2MWSSp9I
— David Charns (@davidcharns) November 17, 2023
Sainz was unhurt in the incident and was able to take part in the second practice session, which took place two-and-a-half hours later than scheduled following repairs and inspections around the track. However he will have a 10-place grid penalty as a result of parts Ferrari had to change on his car due to the damage caused by the impact.
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Nick T.
17th November 2023, 14:05
Reminds me of the T-90 tanks lately.
dot_com (@dot_com)
17th November 2023, 14:17
Wow that was crazy. Could have been a massive incident.
kpcart
17th November 2023, 14:20
surely after this footage the FIA will intervene in the stewards remarks and let Ferrari rebuilt the car without penalty. that looked like it could have injured Sainz, thankfully not.
Billy Rae Flop
17th November 2023, 17:58
Well apparently according to one tweet, the cockpit has a hole whearby it was possible to see the road through it. Not sure of the truth of this though. Think it was a journo tweet
DaveW (@dmw)
17th November 2023, 14:25
This is not the only street track where this happened. But it is unacceptable. Driver’s body is a few centimeters off the ground. Metal FOD like this on the track could critically injure a driver.
Ian Stephens
18th November 2023, 0:42
This is not acceptable BECAUSE it is not the first or second, or third) time it has happened. Intelligent people learn from mistakes, not repeat them.
Kurt Laguna
17th November 2023, 14:32
Didn’t F1 have man hole cover problems when they last came to Vegas? At the time, they had to weld down the man hole covers. Someone from the FIA forgot an old lesson and missed it on inspection. However, a grid penalty is beyond stupid for a circumstance outside of the teams control!
Don
17th November 2023, 14:48
Welding down the man hole covers is mandatory at any street race, for obviously this reason. I believe the concrete broke up a bit around it and it dislodged.
bosyber (@bosyber)
17th November 2023, 16:01
It was welded,earlier articles said the cement around the cover broke. But F1 cars have lots of suction (downforce) , and since the last time in Vegas they gained a lot of it.
MichaelN
17th November 2023, 17:22
It’s the FIA’s job to certify the track though, and the clerk of the course’s job to give the race director info on the state of the track during the weekend. Even if the hosts didn’t do a great job (possible) it was still the FIA’s job to give the all clear.
As the technical delegate notes, both Ocon and Sainz suffered extensive damage to their survival cell (!). This is clearly unacceptable. The clerk of the course did a very poor job.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
18th November 2023, 15:24
Last time F1 came to Vegas was 1982, I would have hoped there would have been some developments since then ;)
stefano (@alfa145)
17th November 2023, 14:55
I’m even more impressed by the fact that the video is 240p at maximum resolution, how does one even achieve that nowadays?
richEQ
17th November 2023, 15:04
LOL! :-)
Maybe it’s a feature of the latest iPhone
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
18th November 2023, 15:33
@alfa145 My phone (which is still sold new) manages 1 MP on its camera. It’s technically capable of 1600 x 1200 pixels for video recording (which has more pixels than 720p, albeit in the old-style 4:3 resolution). However, good luck getting it to record anything other than a blur because the camera it comes with is about what you’d expect from a phone model that was designed to retail at £25 8 years ago.
My guess is this was recorded on an entry-level phone, and probably not a new device either.
rpaco
17th November 2023, 19:02
We miss Charlie!
Rick
17th November 2023, 20:32
And Ferrari gets a 10 place penalty for the track being a POS. GREAT JOB F1.
Khürt Williams (@khurtwilliams)
17th November 2023, 21:29
Interestingly, F1 has not allowed any of the videos from their CCTV to be shown on the F1 shows. I watched all of the FP1 and FP2 sessions on the F1TV app. The commentators talked about what happened but have yet to show any video.
Alianora La Canta (@alianora-la-canta)
18th November 2023, 15:34
@khurtwilliams F1 must have relented because it was shown on the Channel 4 qualifying highlights, during its description of what Steve Jones correctly described as a “facepalm” session.
Kerry Maxwell (@kerrymaxwell)
18th November 2023, 15:40
This is the second article here framing this as Sainz hitting the track cover, when it is clear it was Sainz who was struck by a projectile created by shoddy workmanship. Imagine articles saying Massa struck a spring with his skull!