Scuderia Ferrari Spanish driver Carlos Sainz is not going through a positive moment, in this final part of the 2022 Formula One season. The Spaniard looked set to challenge for the race victory in the United States Grand Prix after taking pole position at the Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas.
Carlos therefore started Sunday’s event from P1, alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen on the front row. The Dutchman had a better start and took the lead, as the two fought into Turn 1, with Max Verstappen going around the outside, which made the Ferrari driver turn back in towards the apex to go wheel to wheel. But unfortunately for the Maranello team and Carlos, the Mercedes of George Russell, who started from fourth place, tried an overtaking move on the inside of his teammate, hitting the F1-75 car: this led to a puncture for the Ferrari car, but also to a water leak, which meant the end of the race for the Spaniard, who for the second race in a row retired after just one lap.
Despite the fact that even George Russell admitted the crash was his fault, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff believes the blame should be shared.
“If I was a steward, I would look at it and it’s maybe, George had a late brake, maybe had a little understeer moment. Then Carlos cut in quite brutally. I don’t know if Max had an energy thing, so yeah it’s a shame, but we need to take it on the chin the five seconds and then the wat he t-boned him, we were surprised that it was not a DNF.” – the Mercedes boss said, at the end of the United States Grand Prix in Austin.
The race stewards investigated the incident and gave a five-second time penalty to George Russell, which could have been even harsher given the fact that his victim had to retire, while the British driver finished in the top five. However, his Mercedes car also suffered some damage, as pointed out by Toto Wolff:
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“We’ve just seen the front wing, it’s massively damaged. Not only the front wing endplate but also below and that’s the aero critical part, so he had a car that was not capable of doing more.” – the Mercedes boss added.
Carlos Sainz will now be hoping to finish strong in the last three races of the 2022 Formula 1 campaign, a season during which the Spaniard found himself retiring from the race in Australia, Imola, Baku, Austria, Japan and now the United States, but also secured his first Formula 1 won, in the British Grand Prix at the Silverstone circuit.
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