The Las Vegas track has already caused severe damage: a manhole cover lifted on the straight of the Strip damaged the chassis of Carlos Sainz’s SF-23 and Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. Both drivers will be forced to skip the second session because the cars need to be rebuilt from a bare spare chassis that must be prepared. The Ferrari also suffered engine and gearbox failures: the devastation is total. Carlos Sainz is sore in the back but will be able to continue the weekend.
The chassis of Carlos Sainz’s Ferrari is damaged and must be replaced with a spare one. But it seems that the impact with the manhole cover was devastating, to the point that the Prancing Horse team will also have to change the power unit and gearbox! The manhole cover that lifted on the Strip straight has already caused serious damage: after just eight minutes of the Las Vegas GP FP1, two cars have destroyed the underside of the chassis and will have to skip the second session. In the closed Maranello pit box, protected by windbreaks, the spare chassis was seen entering.
The driver has suffered a nasty hit to the back: he is sore, but tomorrow he should be regularly in his place in the car, although not in perfect shape.
The Ferrari driver suffered a tear to the SF-23 after taking off on the cover of a manhole that lifted from its seat when another single-seater, reportedly Esteban Ocon’s Alpine, passed by, which suffered a similar crack.
What gave way was the sealing of the manhole to the asphalt with cement: the ground effect, i.e., the suction of the single-seaters, facilitated the lifting of the cover, creating a very dangerous situation. Lance Stroll also had to interrupt his session after a couple of laps before the red flag for Ferrari because there was a problem with the bottom of his Aston Martin AMR21.
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Max Verstappen’s prophecy, which had predicted “99% show and 1% sport,” immediately found concrete application. It must be admitted that this is not the first episode of a track session interrupted by a manhole cover opening: it happened in 2016 to Jenson Button in the Monaco GP practice with McLaren and repeated in 2019 in Baku with George Russell in the Williams.
The race direction is carrying out checks on all the manhole covers scattered along the six kilometers of the track. Certainly, the start of Las Vegas has not been positive…
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