Ferrari to hold ‘private talks’ with Las Vegas GP chiefs about compensation deal
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Ferrari will hold “private discussions” with Liberty Media and Formula 1 regarding compensation for the damage to Carlos Sainz’s car at the Las Vegas Grand Prix. A loose metal water valve cover caused the driver to crash during Free Practice 1, causing the session’s cancellation after only eight minutes on the track.
Liberty Media are already facing a class action lawsuit filed by a local Las Vegas firm seeking damages on behalf of the fans in attendance at the street circuit on Thursday night. And they now face forking out further compensation to Ferrari.
Despite being an unusual incident, there is precedent from six years ago when something similar happened at the 2017 Malaysian GP. Haas driver Romain Grosjean, who now races in IndyCar, hit a loose drain cover, dealing significant damage to his car.
That resulted in the negotiation of a financial settlement with the organizers. Ferrari now seems to be seeking something similar.
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“This will be a private discussion that I will have with the stakeholders of this,” team principal Frederic Vasseur insisted. “There is no provision in the budget or cost cap for excluding the crashes.
“For sure, you have a lot of extra costs. The loom was damaged, the gearbox was damaged, the battery was damaged, and the engine was dead.
“We have a lot of consequences on the financial side, on the sporting side, and even on the stock of spare parts, and on the budget side, for sure, it’s not an easy one. He added: “There will be discussion. The decision, it’s another thing.”
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“We’d have to discuss about the circumstances of the incident also,” Vasseur continued. “Because it’s not just about the cover coming out; it’s also for me that we had one minute between the yellow flag and the red flag.
“It means that when they put the yellow flag, they saw something on track. And they took one minute before they put the red flag.
“I think it’s too much. The main issue for me in this case is that when you put the first yellow flag, it means that you saw something; you don’t put the yellow flag by anticipation.
“It means that the guy who put the yellow flag, and put the yellow flag also on my board, which is coming from the race control, it means that they saw something, and then they took one minute before they put the red flag when it’s the straight line, and you have a metallic part, and you are at 340 kph.”
He later confirmed that there was no message regarding debris on the track. “They didn’t speak at all,” Vasseur said. “We didn’t know the reason for the yellow flag.”
In the race, Sainz overcame a 10-place grid penalty to finish 6th. His teammate Charles Leclerc came 2nd, with a poorly-timed second safety car costing him 1st.
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