F1 News: Carlos Sainz's Abu Dhabi Crash Leads To More Bad News For Ferrari As Cost Cap Woes Continue

The finances take the beating along with the car.

Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz's crash has been the cause yet again for extracting quite a large portion out of the team's budget for this year after he crashed during Free Practice 2 in Abu Dhabi yesterday. 

The damage arrived just a week after he got unlucky in FP1 in Las Vegas when his car hit a drain hole cover at speeds exceeding 300 kph. The impact led to him attracting a 10-place grid drop penalty for using a new battery on his SF-23, for no fault of his. 

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Speaking to his team after the Abu Dhabi FP3 crash that occurred after he oversteered, he said:

“I crashed, guys. Dirty air from the car [in front] gave me a massive snap [of oversteer], the dirty air and the bump, I think.”

From the looks of it the damage to his car looked quite significant, so team mechanics would have had to face a race overnight to get it ready for FP3 and qualifying. 

It wasn't just Sainz who crashed during the session. Shortly after the session resumed, Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg crashed in a similar manner that caused a second red flag. 

However, it is clear that a major dent has been created in Ferrari's finances after the Las Vegas FP1 crash, as explained by team principal Fred Vasseur. He said:

“There is no provision into the budget or cost cap, for excluding the crashes,” Vasseur said in Vegas.

“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.”

Consequently, a second crash in Abu Dhabi FP2 would have made the financial scenario a lot worse. Not to forget the season's end, which has made the teams eager to reduce their spending as much as possible.

Though crashes are factored into a team's annual budget, Ferrari's major accident in Las Vegas would have been an exception considering the key components that were replaced in Sainz's car.