Toto Wolff has described the penalty handed to Carlos Sainz at the 2023 Las Vegas Grand Prix as ‘absolutely unfair’ and called for changes to the regulations regarding force majeure. The Ferrari driver ran over a loose water valve cover during the opening minutes of FP1, causing considerable damage to the underside and power unit of his SF-23.
Concerns about a repeat incident eventually caused FP1 to be abandoned, while Sainz and Ferrari suffered millions in damages. So severe was the damage to the Spaniard’s car, that he was forced to take a new energy store to compete in the rest of the race weekend.
As this was Sainz’s third unit of the season, he breached the permitted allocation in the regulations. Despite heavy protests from Ferrari, widespread sympathy in the paddock and reluctance from the stewards, the FIA was forced to hand him a 10-place grid penalty for the Grand Prix.
In their notes, the stewards acknowledged that they would have liked to explore handing Sainz an exemption from a grid penalty since neither he nor Ferrari could do anything to avoid the incident. However, there was no avenue in the current sporting regulations that would have allowed for such a ruling. This has sparked a debate about the sport’s ruleset with Wolff now calling for a look at possible changes.
“What happened to Carlos was absolutely unfair,” the Mercedes team principal told PlanetF1. “I’m talking about the penalty. Unfair. For me, as a racer, I am the first one to say that he didn’t deserve the outcome. I think we should look at the rules. Force majeure is a difficult one.
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“What happens with kerb strikes? You know, you destroy your car by riding up a kerb? There’s nothing you can do. [What if] you’re riding over bumps with cold tyres like it happened to Lando [Norris in Las Vegas], and you smash it into the wall? Is that force majeure, are people going to say this is a force majeure event?
“What if another car T-bones you and you haven’t done nothing? Is that force majeure? Nobody liked the situation, as a sportsman. It was unjust what happened to him and ruined the race weekend for him that he maybe could have won. So we’ve got to look and give it a hard think how we can change it.”
The Mercedes team principal wasn’t so vocal about the injustice at the time, opting to launch a staunch defence of F1 during the post-session press conference. Wolff reacted furiously to one journalist’s question, labelling the incident as “nothing” before stating: “It is completely ridiculous that you are speaking about a f**ing drain cover that’s been undone.”
Qualifying on the front row mitigated some of the damage for Sainz, who fought back to finish in P6, although this result cost him dearly in the Drivers’ Championship. The Ferrari star ended the campaign in seventh place, just six points behind Fernando Alonso in fourth.
