Ferrari’s cost cap concerns worsen following Carlos Sainz Abu Dhabi crash
Carlos Sainz suffered a heavy crash early on in FP2.
Carlos Sainz has taken another hefty chunk out of Ferrari’s budget after he crashed during free practice 2 in Abu Dhabi.
The Spaniard lost the car in the dirty air which caused a snap of oversteer and saw him crash into the Turn 3 barriers.
Speaking over the radio, Sainz said: “I crashed, guys. Dirty air from the car [in front] gave me a massive snap [of oversteer], the dirty air and the bump, I think.”
Carlos Sainz’s back-to-back crashes poses Ferrari problem
The damage from the car looked significant with Ferrari’s mechanics facing a race overnight to get it ready for FP3 and more importantly qualifying on Saturday.
Shortly after the restart, Nico Hulkenberg then crashed in a similar incident, bringing out a second red flag.
Sainz’s crash comes just a week after he became the unfortunate driver to ride over a loose water valve in Vegas.
The incident not only delayed FP2 by several hours, leading to empty stands, but also hit Ferrari in their wallets with team principal Fred Vasseur suggesting there would be financial consequences as a result.
“There is no provision into the budget or cost cap, for excluding the crashes,” Vasseur said in Vegas. “For sure you have a lot of extra costs. The loom was damaged, the gearbox was damaged, the battery was damaged, the engine is 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.”
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With the season almost at an end, teams are desperate to avoid any extra expenditure and even though crashes will have been factored in a team’s budget, such costly incidents so close together will not have been in Ferrari’s plans.
The budget cap for 2023 has been set at $135 million.
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