Martin Brundle warns of ‘perilous’ knee-jerk reaction to Carlos Sainz incident at Las Vegas GP

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Martin Brundle has now warned the FIA and Formula 1 against making any knee-jerk reactions to the grid penalty that Carlos Sainz of Ferrari received at the Las Vegas GP.

But the F1 icon believes the sport must introduce some allowance for the stewards to ignore certain rules when fitting. Sainz got a 10-place grid penalty for the Las Vegas GP after Ferrari replaced his engine and battery after a loose water valve cover destroyed his car during FP1.

A water valve cover smashed through the floor of Sainz’s car after breaking free through the downforce of F1 machinery. It meant the 29-year-old needed his third energy store this year and exceeded the permitted two. Ferrari also had to replace his ICE and control electronics.

Why did Carlos Sainz get a grid penalty at the Las Vegas GP?

The FIA stewards having to hand Sainz a 10-place grid penalty for the Las Vegas GP enraged Ferrari team principal Frederic Vasseur. He deemed a water valve cover becoming dislodged after eight minutes of FP1 as ‘unacceptable’ and also noted how it cost ‘a fortune’ to repair.

Sky Sports F1 pundit Brundle noted at the time that Vasseur had a right to be angry with the grid penalty for Sainz. McLaren CEO Zak Brown also noted that he was ‘surprised’ to see the Spaniard punished. The incident was fully out of Ferrari’s control, so did not merit a penalty.

Brown would have supported the FIA stewards not slapping Sainz with a grid penalty for the Las Vegas GP. But the FIA’s rulebook does not allow the stewards to ignore any rules relating to grid penalties for exceeding the permitted number of each power unit element each year.

Brundle warns the FIA and F1 against making a knee-jerk reaction

The penalty ultimately dropped Sainz down to P12 on the grid for the Las Vegas GP after the Ferrari driver qualified in second place. He finished Q3 just 0.044 seconds off the pace of his pole-winning Scuderia stablemate, Charles Leclerc. The Spaniard also ended the race in P6.

Sainz saw his race unravel at the first corner of the first lap when the Spaniard understeered into Lewis Hamilton. A safety car period soon after then allowed Sainz to catch the tail of the field after pitting for repairs. But he could not join the fight for the win he may have been in.

Brundle now feels the FIA and F1 should review their rulebooks to introduce some measures for the stewards to avoid giving penalties like what Sainz received at the Las Vegas GP. But they also need to be careful with any force majeure wording to avoid creating a future issue.

“There are hundreds of pages of rules in the International Sporting Code and the specific F1 Sporting and Technical Regulations, but nothing which can allow the stewards to legally turn a blind eye if something just doesn’t seem fair,” Brundle noted in a column for Sky Sports F1.

“It’s perilous to write a clause and create a precedent where the stewards can unilaterally ignore regulations in the name of common sense and fairness in force majeure situations, even if every team and other key bodies agree.

“But we really must add some wording, with due checks and balances, which can be applied without fear of ensuing legal actions or teams using it to [an] advantage in other scenarios.”