F1 steward handed out harsh Las Vegas punishment even though it ‘felt wrong’
F1 steward Derek Warwick has admitted Carlos Sainz’s 10-place grid penalty at the Las Vegas Grand Prix “felt and was wrong”. Ferrari driver Sainz hit a loose drain cover in the early minutes of the first practice session in Sin City, causing considerable damage to his car.
The rest of the session was cancelled as the organisers scrambled to fix the loose drain cover, to prevent any further damage and delay. However, the changes made to Sainz’s car resulted in a 10-place grid penalty before the Spaniard even had the chance to qualify.
Ferrari boss Frederic Vasseur branded F1 as “unacceptable”. He fumed: “What Carlos said was he hit something on track and didn’t know exactly what it was. We completely damaged the monocoque, engine and battery. It’s just unacceptable.”
F1 steward Warwick says the rules had their hands tied and unable to brush off any penalties. “It’s a difficult job for a steward, the same as a referee, and we’ve got to be impartial,” former Renault, Brabham and Lotus driver Warwick told Reuters.
“We’ve got to be strict and we’ve got to be hard sometimes even when it hurts us. The penalty we had to give Sainz in Vegas, it felt wrong, it was wrong, we worked very hard for it not to happen but they’re the rules.”
Sainz started the Las Vegas race from 12th after qualifying second and climbed up to sixth to collect eight valuable points. The penalty may have affected the race for second in the Constructors’ Championship too. Mercedes edged Ferrari by three points following Abu Dhabi.
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Rivals Merc were accused of vetoing a penalty waiver for Ferrari in Las Vegas in a bid to aid their Constructors’ Championship standing. Boss Toto Wolff says any other team principal would have done the same. “As a team principal for a rival team that is fighting for P2, I need to look at the regulations and at the full scope of possible actions of ourselves in order to finish P2 in the championship,” Wolff told RacingNews365.
“If the regulation says so, I need to act for the benefit of the team and 2,500 people. If we lost the championship by five points because I have acted in sporting fairness, and the rules would have allowed me to actually penalise the car, I need to do this. Every other team principal will do it as much as it’s unfair. I need to decide, is it unfair for a rival driver? It is. But I have 2,500 people that I’m literally responsible for – that pay mortgages and school fees. So, it’s a no-brainer.”
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