Only a few hours ago, we had shared Carlos Sainz’s strange feeling about the Las Vegas GP being in the night, and how a street track ‘always makes things more challenging’. Unfortunately, the Spaniard’s worst fears came true during the first practice when a broken drain cover damaged his SF23 only 9 minutes into the session!

While the teams and drivers were all doom and gloom regarding the weather, no one had expected it would be a piece of drainage that would derail the big show. In light of how deadly this incident could have been, Red Bull’s chief advisor has spoken out about the safety risk it creates.

Crucial error at the Las Vegas GP could have ended with fatal consequences, says Helmut Marko

Due to significant damage to the Ferrari as reported by Fred Vasseur, the session was cancelled and not to be resumed. The Ferrari boss said this was an ‘unacceptable’ incident alluding to Sainz’s engine, battery, and monocoque damage. The story was similar for Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, as their chassis will also need to be changed

Speaking to various media outlets after the incident at the strip, Dr. Helmut Marko was quoted in a tweet, “I just hope that we can solve this quickly from a safety perspective so that we can at least do one more practice session. That [incident] could have had fatal consequences.” The Austrian was critical about the fact that since the FIA had to recheck the circuit for any other dislodged drainage covers, the time lost during first practice could bleed into other practice sessions as well. The teams could be heading into the rest of the weekend with only a handful of warmup laps completed.

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This could spell disaster for the teams, with temperatures expected to be even lower during the race. It will be crucial for the FIA to resolve this issue because the damage it could incur not just on the cars but also on the public is an expense F1 cannot afford to bear.

Las Vegas GP Race Director’s Pre-emptive Actions Expose F1’s Incompetent Act After Manhole Fiasco

The team principals of different teams all had the same opinion that this was highly unsafe for the drivers and there was a feeling of disappointment overpowering the air. But what exactly went wrong and how bad was the damage? Can Carlos Sainz’s car be fixed in time?

The drainage cover incident shook the entire Grid up

From multiple angles of the incident, it’s evident that the manhole covers on the circuit which were supposed to be sealed came undone under the heavy downforce created by the F1 cars. As Carlos Sainz went over the cover, his SF23 left a trail of sparks and a huge thud, which left bystanders startled, to say the least. Earlier, Kym Ilman had also shown these covers in his Vegas GP tour video and, coincidentally, wondered if they would be there for free practice.

On the other hand, Guanyu Zhou’s onboard gave us a shocking insight into what the drivers saw as Sainz had the fateful encounter with the drainage cover, leaving behind a massive hole that the Alfa Romeo driver and Fernando Alonso both swerved around.

But while Helmut Marko was critical of the incident and shed light on how important safety is during such events, their long-time rivals, Mercedes boss, Toto Wolff,  took a different approach – to defend the organisers, claiming it was only practice 1, and we shouldn’t take away from the new heights F1 is aiming for. So it’s safe to say everyone is going wild with what just went down!

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The teams had come prepared to tame a different Beast from what they experienced on the simulator, but the Vegas Street Circuit has thrown a curveball in a way we least expected! A lot is riding on this event not just for Liberty Media, but the reputation of this sport in the USA. Will the organizers manage to recover?