Carlos Sainz explains the situation leading to his F1 Japanese GP crash, as Mattia Binotto doesn’t blame the Spaniard.
For Sainz, he suffered the ignominy of being the first man out of the F1 Japanese GP last Sunday. It has been an on and off season for the Spaniard where he broke his Formula One Grand Prix winning duck at Silverstone but has also had some bad luck also and retired early in Grands Prix on more than one occasion.
If anything, he did endure some criticism during the season and a large amount of this could be deemed unfair. Last Sunday, he spun off during the opening lap in very treacherous conditions. It was pot luck really and could have happened to any of the field.
“Basically trying to get out of Checo’s wet court, you know that spray that is… I had zero visibility already in fourth and trying to get out of the spray I went into a puddle on an intermediate tyre,” said Sainz to media. “That doesn’t evacuate as much water and I went into a spin”.
“The worst part probably came later when I was in the middle of the track, spun, and I knew that everyone behind me was not going to see if I was there or not. It was not ideal for sure. There was 20 seconds where I didn’t know if I was gonna get crashed, bracing and just expecting and hoping that my mates were either going to have good reflexes or good luck,” summed up Sainz.
The jury was out though on whether the grand prix should have started when it did or start behind the safety car. The most fortunate driver of course was the race leader at the time, Max Verstappen as he had a clear track in front of him.
“Laps to grid, there was very poor visibility but the track was in good conditions for inters and for doing the race,” said Sainz when asked about the situation. “But very poor visibility probably even for a race start. I talked to a few drivers who were starting 11th, 12th, around that area and they were saying they knew they were going to see nothing at the start”.
“We saw that it kept raining at the race start so we were all looking at each other like we’re all going to be on inters and there’s going to be zero visibility and probably more complaining,” summed up Sainz. It was a lottery and a testimony to the other drivers nobody else shunted on Lap 1 apart from few mishaps. The wet tyres came under criticism from across the grid.
“It’s really bad anyhow, both on extreme wets, visibility is zero in these conditions,” said Sainz. “So the problem there is that you are down to luck. If someone spins 100 metres in front of you, you are not going to see if they have spun. So you’re leaving it down to luck whether you crash into him or you’re going to avoid him, which is what worries me now moving forward in these conditions for everyone out there.”
A tough and frustrating race (or lack of it) for the Spaniard and one best forgotten as he and Charles Leclerc now try to salvage something from the remainder of their campaign especially on the constructors’ side where they have Mercedes just behind. Speaking about his charge, Mattia Binotto was supportive of his driver and did not blame him for the shunt. In short, it could have happened to any of the other 19 drivers.
“He was surprised by the low level of grip,” said Binotto. “He lost his car without warning, in aquaplaning. The situation was either unfortunate for him, or lucky for those who didn’t spin around him. Then he bounced around the track with other drivers arriving fast and didn’t see what was happening”.
“These are very critical and unsafe situations. The best thing would have been to start the race behind the Safety Car and evaluate together with the drivers what to do, as happened at was in the restart,” summed up Binotto.
Here’s Charles Leclerc, Carlos Sainz, Mattia Binotto on tractor issue
Here’s Charles Leclerc, Mattia Binotto on penalty
