Scuderia Ferrari has officially confirmed it has changed the gearbox on the F1-75 car of Carlos Sainz after the incident which took place in the final stages of the qualifying session for the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix. The Spanish driver was not able to avoid Sergio Perez’s Red Bull car at Portier in his final fast lap of Q3, as the Mexican driver had lost control of his car just a few moments before, hitting the wall on the outside of the corner.
Carlos Sainz came around the corner and had no time to react as he saw the car of Sergio Perez very late, causing him to crash into the stricken Red Bull and therefore sustain damage to his Ferrari F1-75. In view of today’s Monaco Grand Prix, the Maranello team announced that it has decided to change the gearbox on Carlos Sainz’s car as a precaution after thoroughly evaluating the damage sustained in the qualifying session on the streets of Monte Carlo:
“After examining Carlos’ car after yesterday’s crash and given the force of the impact, we have decided to change the gearbox as a precaution.” – the Ferrari statement on Carlos Sainz’ car informs – “Naturally, the parts of the rear end that were damaged have also been changed. These changes are penalty-free.”
The decision made by the Italian side comes as Ferrari remembers the events from last season in Monaco, when Charles Leclerc was not able to take part in the race on Sunday despite taking pole position on Saturday, to to damage sustained in a crash in qualifying, which the Maranello team had no way of identifying without taking a grid penalty. Ferrari only discovered a left-rear driveshaft failure on Charles Leclerc’s car when they fired the car up to go to the grid, at a time when it was too late to do anything about it.
Show your support for Scuderia Ferrari with official merchandise collection from Puma! Enter the online Puma Store and shop securely! And get your F1 tickets for every race with VIP hospitality and unparalleled insider access. Click here for the best offers to support Charles and Carlos from the track!
However, unlike previous seasons when F1 teams had to use the same gearbox for a set amount of races, starting from the current campaign there is a pool of four gearbox cassettes and components which can be used during the entire championship. This means that Carlos Sainz will be allowed to start the Monaco Grand Prix from second place, just behind his Maranello teammate:
“I just hit the brakes, I tried to do the corner radius as tight as possible, and just as I was going to manage to avoid him, I hit the brake a bit harder and managed to clip his back with the back of the car,” Carlos Sainz explained when asked about the incident with the Red Bull car of Sergio Perez – “It would have been a pretty good save if I would have saved it, but because there was basically no time to save it, but it’s what happens in Monaco.” – he added.
Leave a Reply