F1 News: Ferrari To Hold Discussions With Liberty Media Over Carlos Sainz Crash- "A Lot Of Consequences"

Team Principal Fred Vasseur will have a discussion with the stakeholders of the Las Vegas Grand Prix.

After Carlos Sainz's infamous crash during the Las Vegas Grand Prix's FP1, which saw him hit an unfixed drain hole cover at high speed, Ferrari confirmed that the impact had destroyed the chassis, power unit, and energy store of his SF-23. Since there lies no fault of the driver or the team, team principal Fred Vasseur will have a "private discussion" with the stakeholders seeking compensation. 

Track organizers have compensated teams for losses incurred in the past, like in the case of the 2017 Malaysian Grand Prix when Romain Grosjean's Haas was severely damaged after it struck a loose drain cover. A financial settlement was reached after the team negotiated with the organizers.

When Vasseur was asked if the team would seek compensation, he told the media:

"This will be a private discussion that I will have with the stakeholders of this."

Since Liberty Media and F1 are the organizers of the Las Vegas GP, as the race is promoted in-house, Vasseur will have discussions with the owners of Formula 1. Adding further, he said that the crash had made a dent in the team's finances by impacting its budget cap spending, apart from the cost to fly a spare chassis from Italy to Abu Dhabi next weekend. He added:

"There is no provision into the budget or cost cap, for excluding the crashes.

"For sure you have a lot of extra costs. The loom was damaged, the gearbox was damaged, the battery was damaged, the engine is dead.

"We have a lot of consequences on the financial side, on the sporting side, and even on the stock of spare parts, and on the budget side for sure it's not an easy one."

The team boss also said that he would raise the point of damage to team cars that are beyond the team's control, being placed outside the cost cap. Also, there would be a discussion on the 1-minute time gap between the yellow flag and the red flag during the incident. The yellow flag was waved when a stray object was spotted on the track, but it wasn't until Sainz hit it and stopped that the marshals waived the red flag. He continued:

"There will be discussion. The decision, it's another thing. [On the cost cap provision]"

"We'd have to discuss about the circumstances of the incident also.

"Because it's not just about the cover coming out, it's also for me that we had one minute between the yellow flag and the red flag.

"It means that when they put the yellow flag that they saw something on track. And they took one minute before they put the red flag. I think it's too much.

"The main issue for me on this case is that when you put the first yellow flag it means that you saw something, you don't put the yellow flag by anticipation.

"It means that the guy who put the yellow flag, and put the yellow flag also on my board, which is coming from the race control, it means that they saw something, and then they took one minute before they put the red flag, when it's the straight line, and you have a metallic part, and you are at 340 kph."

Confirming that the team hadn't received a message that there was debris on the track, Vasseur concluded:

"No, they didn't speak at all. We didn't know the reason for the yellow flag."

Ferrari Press Image