Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz has criticised the slow reactions of the marshals after the power unit failure of his F1-75 engine, as his Ferrari car caught fire at the Red Bull Ring in the Austrian Grand Prix on Sunday.
The Spanish driver was well on his way to a second place finish behind his Maranello teammate Charles Leclerc, when he was forced to retire from the Austrian Grand Prix on lap 58 due to a new engine problem, as Ferrari’s reliability issue continue. Carlos Sainz catching Max Verstappen at a fast pace and had a great chance to finish the Spielberg race in P2.
Carlos Sainz left the track via the nearest escape road at turn four but due to the fact that this route forced him to stop on a hill, he decided to remain in the car, keeping his foot on the brake until the marshals came to the scene of the incident. While he was waiting for marshals, however, the fire at the rear of the Ferrari F1-75 started to spread, which left Carlos Sainz in a dangerous position.
“It was not an ideal and easy situation because I realised the car was catching fire but at the same time, I was pressing the brake and as soon as I tried to jump out, I saw that it moved backwards. I didn’t want to leave the car completely free, out of control rolling backwards while I was jumping out. I was calling the marshals to come and help me to put something on the tyres to stop the car rolling down but I think the whole process was a bit slow. At some point, there was too much fire so I really had to get a move on and jump out independently. It was at that point that the first marshal arrived and stopped the car.” – the Ferrari driver explained, after the Austrian Grand Prix.
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Volunteer marshals are most of the times praised for their great reactions in helping drivers out of potentially dangerous moments and incidents. This time, Carlos Sainz feels the FIA should look into how events unfolded in Spielberg.
“It is definitely something we need to look at, what we could have done a bit faster because it was not an easy situation to be in.” – Scuderia Ferarri Spanish driver Carlos Sainz added.
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